BAY-BREASTED WARBLER.

[Plate XIV. Fig. 4.]

Parus peregrinus, the little Chocolate-breasted Titmouse, BARTRAM, p. 292.-PEALE'S Museum, No. 7311.

THIS very rare species passes through Pennsylvania about the beginning of May, and soon disappears. It has many of the habits of the Titmouse, and all their activity; hanging among the extremity of the twigs, and darting about from place to place, with restless diligence, in search of various kinds of the larvæ of insects. It is never seen here in summer, and very rarely on its return, owing, no doubt, to the greater abundance of foliage at that time, and to the silence and real scarcity of the species. Of its nest and eggs we are altogether uninformed.

The length of this bird is five inches, breadth eleven; throat, breast, and sides under the wings, pale chestnut or bay; forehead, cheeks, line over, and strip through the eye, black; crown deep chestnut; lower parts dull yellowish white; hind head and back streaked with black on a grayish buff ground; wings brownish black, crossed with two bars of white; tail forked, brownish black, edged with ash, the three exterior feathers marked with a spot of white on their inner edges; behind the eye is a broad oblong spot of yellowish white. The female has much less of the bay colour on the breast; the black on the forehead is also less and of a brownish tint. The legs and feet, in both, are dark ash, the claws extremely sharp for climbing and hanging; the bill is black; irides hazel.

The ornithologists of Europe take no notice of this species, and have probably never met with it. Indeed it is so seldom

seen in this part of Pennsylvania that few even of our own writers have mentioned it.

I lately received a very neat drawing of this bird, done by a young lady in Middleton, Connecticut, where it seems also to be a rare species.

CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER.

[Plate XIV.-Fig. 5.]

LINN. Syst. 333.-Red-throated Flycatcher, Edw. 301.-Bloodyside Warbler, TURTON, Syst. 1, p. 596.—La figuier a poitrine rouge, BUFF. v, 308.-BRISS. App. 105.-LATH. 11, 490.-Arct. Zool. p. 405, No. 298.-PEALE'S Museum, No. 7006.*

Of this bird I can give but little account. It is one of those transient visitors that pass through Pennsylvania in April and May, on their way farther north to breed. During its stay here, which seldom exceeds a week or ten days, it appears actively engaged among the opening buds and young leaves, in search of insects; has no song but a feeble chirp or twitter; and is not numerous. As it leaves us early in May, it probably breeds in Canada, or perhaps some parts of New England; though I have no certain knowledge of the fact. In a whole day's excursion it is rare to meet with more than one or two of these birds; though a thousand individuals of some species may be seen in the same time. Perhaps they may be more numerous on some other part of the continent.

The length of this species is five inches, the extent seven and three quarters. The front, line over the eye, and ear feathers are pure white, upper part of the head brilliant yellow; the lores, and space immediately below, is marked with a triangular patch of black; the back and hind head is streaked with gray, dusky,

* Additional synonymes:-Motacilla icterocephala, LINN. Syst. 1, p. 325.— GMEL. Syst. 1, p. 980.—Sylvia icterocephala, LATH. Ind. Orn. 11, p. 538.—VIEIL. Ois. de l'Am. Sept. pl. 90.—Sylvia Pennsylvanica, GMEL. Syst. 1, p. 971.-LATH. Ind. Orn. 11, p. 540.-Ficedula Canadensis icteroce, halas, BRISS. 111, p. 517, 64, 1. 27, f. 2.—ld. 8vo. 1, p. 451.-Ficedula pennsylvanica iclerocephalas, BRISS. App. p. 105.-Id. 8vo. 1, p. 458, 78.

black and dull yellow; wings black, primaries edged with pale blue, the first and second row of coverts broadly tipt with pale yellow, secondaries broadly edged with the same; tail black, handsomely forked, exteriorly edged with ash, the inner webs of the three exterior feathers with each a spot of white; from the extremity of the black at the lower mandible, on each side, a streak of deep reddish chestnut descends along the sides of the neck, and under the wings to the root of the tail; the rest of the lower parts are pure white; legs and feet ash; bill black; irides hazel. The female has the hind head much lighter, and the chestnut on the sides is considerably narrower and not of so deep a tint.

Turton and some other writers have bestowed on this little bird the singular epithet of bloody-sided, for which I was at a loss to know the reason, the colour of that part being a plain chestnut; till on examining Mr. Edwards's coloured figure of this bird in the public library of this city, I found its side tinged with a brilliant blood colour. Hence, I suppose, originated the name!

MOURNING WARBLER.

[Plate XIV. Fig. 6.]

I HAVE now the honour of introducing to the notice of naturalists and others, a very modest and neat little species, which has hitherto eluded their research. I must also add, with regret, that it is the only one of its kind I have yet met with. The bird from which the figure in the plate was taken was shot in the early part of June, on the border of a marsh, within a few miles of Philadelphia. It was flitting from one low bush to another, very busy in search of insects; and had a sprightly and pleasant warbling song, the novelty of which first attracted my attention. I have traversed the same and many such places, every spring and summer since, in expectation of again meeting with some individual of the species, but without success. I have, however, the satisfaction to say, that the drawing was done with the greatest attention to peculiarity of form, markings and tint of plumage; and the figure on the plate is a good resemblance of the original. I have yet hopes of meeting, in some of my excursions, with the female; and should I be so fortunate, shall represent her in some future volume of the present work, with such further remarks on their manners, &c. as I may then be enabled to make.

There are two species mentioned by Turton to which the present has some resemblance, viz. Motacilla mitrata, or Mitred Warbler, and M. cucullata, or Hooded Warbler, both birds of the United States, or more properly a single bird; for they are the same species twice described, namely, the Hooded Warbler. The difference, however, between that and the present is so striking, as to determine this at once to be a very distinct

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