towards the great end. In all parts of the United States, where it inhabits, it is a bird of passage. At Savannah I met with it about the twentieth of March; so that it probably retires to the West India islands, and perhaps Mexico, during winter. I also heard this bird among the rank reeds and rushes within a few miles of the mouth of the Mississippi. It has been sometimes seen in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia; but rarely; and on such occasions has all the mute timidity of a stranger, at a distance from home. This species is five inches and a half long, and eight in extent; forehead, cheeks and chin yellow, surrounded with a hood of black that covers the crown, hind head, and part of the neck, and descends, rounding, over the breast; all the rest of the lower parts are rich yellow; upper parts of the wings, the tail and back, yellow olive; interior vanes and tips of the wing and tail dusky; bill black; legs flesh coloured; inner webs of the three exterior tail feathers white for half their length from the tips; the next slightly touched with white; the tail slightly forked, and exteriorly edged with rich yellow olive. The female has the throat and breast yellow, slightly tinged with blackish; the black does not reach so far down the upper part of the neck, and is not of so deep a tint. In the other parts of her plumage she exactly resembles the male. I have found some females that had little or no black on the head or neck above; but these I took to be young birds, not yet arrived at their full tints. SPECIES 14. MUSCICAPA CANADENSIS. CANADA FLYCATCHER. [Plate XXVI.-Fig. 2. Male.] * LINN. Syst. 324.—Arct. Zool. p. 338, No. 273.-Latham, II, 354. -PEALE'S Museum, No. 6969. THIS is a solitary, and in the lower parts of Pennsylvania, rather a rare species; being more numerous in the interior, particularly near the mountains, where the only two I ever met with were shot. They are silent birds, as far as I could observe; and were busily darting among the branches after insects. From the specific name given them it is probable that they are more plenty in Canada than in the United States; where it is doubtful whether they be not mere passengers in spring and autumn. This species is four inches and a half long, and eight in extent; front black; crown dappled with small streaks of gray and spots of black; line from the nostril to and around the eye yellow; below the eye a streak or spot of black, descending along the sides of the throat, which, as well as the breast and belly, is brilliant yellow, the breast being marked with a broad rounding band of black, composed of large irregular streaks; back, wings and tail cinereous brown; vent white; upper mandible dusky, lower flesh coloured; legs and feet the same; eye hazel. Never having met with the female of this bird I am unable at present to say in what its colours differ from those of the male. * Sylvia pardalina, BONAPARTE, Obs. No. 126.-Ibid. SYNOP. No. 108. GREEN BLACK-CAPT FLYCATCHER. [Plate XXVI.-Fig. 4. Male.] PEALE'S Museum, No. 7785. THIS neat and active little species I have never met with in the works of any European naturalist. It is an inhabitant of the swamps of the southern states, and has been several times seen in the lower parts of the states of New Jersey and Delaware. Amidst almost unapproachable thickets of deep morasses it commonly spends its time, during summer, and has a sharp squeaking note, nowise musical. It leaves the southern states early in October. This species is four inches and a half long, and six and a half in extent; front line over the eye and whole lower parts yellow, brightest over the eye and dullest on the cheeks, belly and vent, where it is tinged with olive; upper parts olive green; wings and tail dusky brown, the former very short; legs and bill flesh coloured; crown covered with a patch of deep black; iris of the eye hazel. The female is without the black crown, having that part of a dull yellow olive, and is frequently mistaken for a distinct species. From her great resemblance, however, in other respects. to the male, now first figured, she cannot hereafter be mistaken. * Sylvia Wilsonii, BONAPARTE, Obs. No. 126.-Ibid. SYNOP. 135. SPECIES 16. MUSCICAPA MINUTA. SMALL-HEADED FLYCATCHER. [Plate L.-Fig. 5. Male.] THIS very rare species is the only one I have met with, and is drawn reduced to half its size, to correspond with the rest of the figures on the same plate. It was shot on the twenty-fourth of April, in an orchard, and was remarkably active, running, climbing and darting about among the opening buds and blossoms with extraordinary agility. From what qurter of the United States or of North America it is a wanderer, I am unable to determine, having never before met with an individual of the species. Its notes and manner of breeding are also alike unknown to me. This was a male: it measured five inches long, and eight and a quarter in extent; the upper parts were dull yellow olive; the wings dusky brown edged with lighter; the greater and lesser coverts tipt with white; the lower parts dirty white, stained with dull yellow, particularly on the upper parts of the breast; the tail dusky brown, the two exterior feathers marked like those of many others with a spot of white on the inner vanes; head remarkably small; bill broad at the base, furnished with bristles, and notched near the tip; legs dark brown; feet yellowish; eye dark hazel. Since writing the above I have shot several individuals of this species in various quarters of New Jersey, particularly in swamps. They all appear to be nearly alike in plumage. Having found them there in June, there is no doubt of their breeding in that state, and probably in such situations far to the southward; for many of the southern summer birds that rarely visit Pennsylvania, are yet common to the swamps and pine woods of New Jersey. Similarity of soil and situation, of plants |