SYLVIAD.®. 213
Dimensions
Of the male.
Inches.
Length from the tip of the bill to the end of
Lines.
the tail . 4 9
j, of the tail . . . . 9
,, of the folded wing . ,
1 2 6
,, of the bill from the angle of the
mouth . • • • • 0 6
Length of the bill on its ridge , . 0
Lmes.
. „ of the tarsus . . 0 9
,, of the middle toe 0
,, of the middle claw • Q 2
,, of the hind toe . • 0 3£
,, of the hind claw . 0 n
[47.] ,2. Sylvicola maculosa. (Swainson.) Yellow-rump Warbler.
■ Sub-f a m il y , Parian*. Genus, Sylvicola. Sw ain so n .
Yellow-rumped Fly-catcher (Muscicapa w opygio luted). E dwards, pi. 255.
Ficedula Pennsylvanica, nsevia. B r isson. Ora., iii., p. 502.
Yellow-rump Warbler. P en n . Arct. Zool., ii., p. 400, No. 288.
Sylvia maculosa. Lath. Ind., ii., p. 536, sp. 108. . Bonap. Syn., p. 78, No. 106.*
Sylvia magnolia. Wilson, iii., pi. 23, f. 2.
P late xl.
Although rare in the United States, this is a common bird on the banks of the
Saskatchewan: it is as familiar as the S. wstiva, which it resembles closely
in manners, but is gifted with more varied and agreeable notes. It was often
seen by us in the thickets of young spruce-trees and willows, flitting near the
ground from one branch to another. It feeds on winged insects. The specimens
seen by Wilson were constantly among the higher branches, and were
very active and restless. ■ It is one of the most beautiful of all the American
Warblers.
* Ou consulting the above synonymes, it evidently appears that Brisson, Pennant, and Latham have copied their
account of this species from that first given by our countryman Edwards. Besides the internal evidence which these
descriptions afford of such being the case, the fact is corroborated by a singular circumstance: all these writers describe
the back as of an olive-colour. Such was the specimen described by Edwards, and which was doubtless a female or
young male. This account of an immature specimen seems to have deceived Wilson. The great similarity between
the young bird of his Sylvia coronata and the Yellow-rumped Fly-catcher of Edwards—both having the back olive-
green,—led him to think they were the same. The passage in Edwards runs thus “ The tail feathers, except the
two middlemost, which are black, have the middle parts of their inner webs white, their tips and bottoms being black.”
Now this is a strong and peculiar character in Wilson’s bird; for although nearly all the Sylvicola have the two or
three outer feathers on each side marked with white, the S. magnolia of Wilson is the only one we are acquainted with
where this colour extends through the middle of all the lateral feathers.—Sw.