SYLVIA STRIATA. BLACK-POLL WARBLER. [Plate LIV.-Fig. 4, Female.] THIS bird was shot in the same excursion with the Cape May Warbler (Sylvia maritima), and its history as far as it is known, will be detailed in the history of that species. See page 394. Of its nest and eggs I am ignorant. It doubtless breeds both here and in New Jersey, having myself found it in both places during the summer. From its habit of keeping on the highest branches of trees it probably builds in such situations, and its nest may long remain unknown to us. Pennant, who describes this species, says that it inhabits during summer Newfoundland and New York, and is called in the last Sailor. This name, for which however no reason is given, must be very local, as the bird itself is one of those silent, shy and solitary individuals that seek the deep retreats of the forest, and are known to few or none but the naturalist. Length of the female Black-cap five inches and a quarter, extent eight and a quarter; bill brownish black; crown yellow olive streaked with black; back the same, mixed with some pale slate; wings dusky brown, edged with olive; first and second wing coverts tipt with white; tertials edged with yellowish white; tail coverts pale gray; tail dusky, forked, the two exterior feathers marked on their inner vanes with a spot of white; round the eye is a whitish ring; cheeks and sides of the breast tinged with yellow, and slightly spotted with black; chin white, as are also the belly and vent; legs and feet dirty orange. The young bird of the first season, and the female, as is usually the case, are very much alike in plumage. On their arrival early in April, the black feathers on the crown are frequently seen coming out, intermixed with the former ash-coloured ones. This species has all the agility and many of the habits of the Flycatcher. SPECIES 32. SYLVIA AGILIS. CONNECTICUT WARBLER. [Plate XXXIX.-Fig. 4.] THIS is a new species, first discovered in the state of Connecticut, and twice since met with in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. As to its notes or nest, I am altogether unacquainted with them. The different specimens I have shot corresponded very nearly in their markings; two of these were males, and the other undetermined, but conjectured also to be a male. It was found in every case among low thickets, but seemed more than commonly active, not remaining for a moment in the same position. In some of my future rambles I may learn more of this solitary species. Length five inches and three quarters, extent eight inches; whole upper parts a rich yellow olive; wings dusky brown, edged with olive; throat dirty white, or pale ash; upper part of the breast dull greenish yellow; rest of the lower parts a pure rich yellow; legs long, slender, and of a pale flesh colour; round the eye a narrow ring of yellowish white; upper mandible pale brown, lower whitish; eye dark hazel. Since writing the above I have shot two specimens of a bird which in every particular agrees with the above, except in having the throat of a dull buff colour instead of pale ash; both of these were females, and I have little doubt but they are of the same species with the present, as their peculiar activity seemed exactly similar to the males above described. These birds do not breed in the lower parts of Pennsylvania, though they probably may be found in summer in the alpine swamps and northern regions, in company with a numerous class of the same tribe that breed in these unfrequented solitudes. PINE-SWAMP WARBLER. [Plate XLIII.-Fig. 4.] THIS little bird is for the first time figured or described. Its favourite haunts are in the deepest and gloomiest pine and hemlock swamps of our mountainous regions, where every tree, trunk, and fallen log is covered with a luxuriant coat of moss, that even mantles over the surface of the ground, and prevents the sportsman from avoiding a thousand holes, springs and swamps, into which he is incessantly plunged. Of the nest of this bird I am unable to speak. I found it associated with the Blackburnian Warbler, the Golden-crested Wren, Ruby-crowned Wren, Yellow Rump, and others of that description, in such places as I have described, about the middle of May. It seemed as active in flycatching as in searching for other insects, darting nimbly about among the branches, and flirting its wings; but I could not perceive that it had either note or song. I shot three, one male and two females. I have no doubt that they breed in those solitary swamps, as well as many other of their associates. The Pine-swamp Warbler is four inches and a quarter long, and seven inches and a quarter in extent; bill black, not notched, but furnished with bristles; upper parts a deep green olive, with slight bluish reflections, particularly on the edges of the tail and on the head; wings dusky, but so broadly edged with olive green as to appear wholly of that tint; immediately below the primary coverts there is a single triangular spot of yellowish white; no other part of the wing is white; the three exterior tail • Wilson first called this bird pusilla, but that name being preoccupied, he changed it in the index to leucoptera; this latter name is also preoccupied, and Prince Musignano has proposed that it should be called S. sphagnosa. feathers with a spot of white on their inner vanes; the tail is slightly forked; from the nostrils over the eye extends a fine line of white, and the lower eye-lid is touched with the same tint; lores blackish; sides of the neck and auriculars green olive; whole lower parts pale yellow ochre, with a tinge of greenish, duskiest on the throat; legs long and flesh coloured. The plumage of the female differs in nothing from that of the male. ་ |