or last week, of April, and begins to build its nest about the middle of May: this is fixed on the ground, among the dried leaves, in the very depth of a thicket of briars, sometimes arched over, and a small hole left for entrance; the materials are dry leaves and fine grass, lined with coarse hair; the eggs are five, white, or semi-transparent, marked with specks of reddish brown. The young leave the nest about the twenty-second of June; and a second brood is often raised in the same season. Early in September they leave us, returning to the south.

This pretty little species is four inches and three quarters long, and six inches and a quarter in extent; back, wings, and tail, green olive, which also covers the upper part of the neck, but approaches to cinereous on the crown; the eyes are inserted in a band of black, which passes from the front, on both sides, reaching half way down the neck; this is bounded above by another band of white deepening into light blue; throat, breast, and vent brilliant yellow; belly a fainter tinge of the same colour; inside coverts of the wings also yellow; tips and inner vanes of the wings dusky brown; tail cuneiform, dusky, edged with olive-green; bill black, straight, slender, of the true Motacilla form; though the bird itself was considered as a species of Thrush by Linnæus, but very properly removed to the genus Motacilla by Gmelin; legs flesh coloured; iris of the eye dark hazel. The female wants the black band through the eye, has the bill brown, and the throat of a much paler yellow. This last, I have good reason to suspect, has been described by Europeans as a separate species; and that from Louisiana, referred to in the synonymes, appears evidently the same as the former, the chief difference, according to Buffon, being in its wedged tail, which is likewise the true form of our own species; so that this error corrected will abridge the European nomenclature of two species. Many more examples of this kind will occur in the course of our descriptions.

MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT.

[Plate XVIII.-Fig. 4.-Female.]

THE male of this species having been represented in Plate VI, fig. 1, accompanied by a particular detail of its manners, I have little farther to add here relative to this bird. I found several of them round Wilmington, North Carolina, in the month of January, along the margin of the river, and by the Cypress swamp, on the opposite side. The individual, from which the figure in the plate was taken, was the actual nurse of the young Cow-pen Bunting, which it is represented in the act of feeding.

It is five inches long, and seven in extent; the whole upper parts green olive, something brownish on the neck, tips of the wings and head; the lower parts yellow, brightest on the throat and vent; legs flesh coloured. The chief difference between this and the male in the markings of their plumage, is, that the female is destitute of the black bar through the eyes, and the bordering one of pale bluish white.

SPECIES 4. SYLVIA REGULUS.

GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN.

[Plate VIII.-Fig. 2.]

Motacilla regulus, LINN. Syst. 1, 338, 48.-LATH. Syn. iv, 508, 145.-Edw. 254.-PEALE'S Museum, No. 7246.

THIS diminutive species is a frequent associate of the one last described, and seems to be almost a citizen of the world at large, having been found not only in North and South America, the West Indies and Europe, but even in Africa and India. The specimen from Europe, in Mr. Peale's collection, appears to be in nothing specifically different from the American; and the very accurate description given of this bird by the Count de Buffon, agrees in every respect with ours. Here, as in Europe, it is a bird of passage, making its first appearance in Pennsylvania early in April, among the blossoms of the maple, often accompanied by the Ruby-crowned Wren, which, except in the markings of the head, it very much resembles. It is very frequent among evergreens, such as the pine, spruce, cedar, juniper, &c. and in the Fall is generally found in company with the two species of Titmouse, Brown Creeper, and small Spotted Woodpecker. It is an active, unsuspicious, and diligent little creature, climbing and hanging, occasionally, among the branches, and sometimes even on the body of the tree, in search of the larvæ of insects, attached to the leaves and stems, and various kinds of small flies, which it frequently seizes on wing. As it retires still farther north to breed, it is seldom seen in Pennsylvania from May to October; but is then numerous in orchards, feeding among the leaves of the apple-trees, which, at that season, are infested with vast numbers of small black winged insects. Its chirp is feeble, not much louder than that

of a mouse; though where it breeds the male is said to have a variety of sprightly notes. It builds its nest frequently on the branches of an evergreen, covers it entirely round, leaving a small hole on one side for entrance, forming it outwardly of moss and lichens, and lining it warmly with down. The female lays six or eight eggs, pure white, with a few minute specks of dull red. Dr. Latham, on whose authority this is given, observes, it seems to frequent the oak trees in preference to all others. I have more than once seen a brood of these in a large oak in the middle of a lawn, the whole little family of which, as soon as able, were in perpetual motion, and gave great pleasure to many who viewed them. The nest of one of these has also been made in a garden on a fir tree; it was composed of moss, the opening on one side, in shape roundish; it was lined with a downy substance, fixed with small filaments. It is said to sing very melodiously, very like the Common Wren, but weaker."* In Pennsylvania they continue with us from October to December, and sometimes to January.

The Golden-crested Wren is four inches long, and six inches and a half in extent; back a fine yellow olive; hind head and sides of the neck inclining to ash; a line of white passes round the frontlet extending over and beyond the eye on each side; above this another line or strip of deep black passes in the same manner, extending farther behind; between these two strips of black lies a bed of glossy golden yellow, which being parted a little, exposes another of a bright flame colour, extending over the whole upper part of the head; when the little warbler flits among the branches in pursuit of insects, he opens and shuts this golden ornament with great adroitness, which produces a striking and elegant effect; lores marked with circular points of black; below the eye is a rounding spot of dull white; from the upper mandible to the bottom of the ear feathers runs a line of black, accompanied by another of white from the lower mandible; breast light cream colour; sides under the wings and vent the same; wings dusky, edged exteriorly with yellow olive; * Synopsis 11, 509.

VOL. II.-T t

greater wing coverts tipt with white, immediately below which a spot of black extends over several of the secondaries; tail pretty long, forked, dusky, exterior vanes broadly edged with yellow olive; legs brown, feet and claws yellow; bill black, slender, straight, evidently of the Muscicapa form, the upper mandible being notched at the point, and furnished at the base with bristles, that reach half way to its point; but what seems singular and peculiar to this little bird, the nostril on each side is covered by a single feather, that much resembles the antennæ of some butterflies, and is half the length of the bill. Buffon has taken notice of the same in the European. Inside of the mouth a reddish orange; claws extremely sharp, the hind one the longest. In the female the tints and markings are nearly the same, only the crown or crest is pale yellow. These birds are numerous in Pennsylvania in the month of October, frequenting bushes that overhang streams of water, alders, briars, and particularly apple trees, where they are eminently useful in destroying great numbers of insects, and are at that season extremely fat.