FEMALE CCERULEAN WARBLER. 
29 
The description of the male need not here be repeated, having 
been already given with sufficient accuracy by Wilson, to whose 
work the reader is referred. On a comparison of the description 
and figures, he will find that the chief difference between the 
sexes consists in the female being green instead of blue, in her 
wanting the black streaks, and in being tinged with yellow 
beneath. 
We have to regret our inability to add much to Wilson’s short 
and imperfect account of the species. It is by no means more 
common at this time, than it was when he wrote; which may 
account for the difficulty of ascertaining the period of its migra¬ 
tions, and for the circumstance of our having never met with the 
nest, and our want of acquaintance with its habits. We can only 
add to its history, that it is found in the Trans-Mississippian 
territory; for the Sylvia bifasciata of Say, accurately described 
in Long’s first expedition, is no other than the male. We have 
examined the specimen shot at Engineer Cantonment. 
Although the undisputed merit of first making known this 
species belongs to Wilson, yet the scientific name that he applied 
to it cannot be retained, inasmuch as it is pre-occupied by the 
Blue-gray Warbler, a Linnean species, which Wilson placed 
in Muscicapa, but which we consider a Sylvia, notwithstanding 
that it does in some degree aberrate from the typical species of 
that genus .* Under such circumstances, we cannot hesitate in 
adopting the name substituted by Mr. Stephens, the continuator 
of Shaw’s compilation. 
* See my Observations on the Nomenclature of Wilson’s Ornithology. 
VOL. II.-H 
