pendent of colour, it has a much more lengthened bill. In all the essential
characters our bird is a true Vermivora; but the bill, when examined under a
lens, exhibits a slight notch, somewhat removed from the tip of the upper
mandible; a character never seen in the typical Vermivora;, but developed in
Zosterops, the tenuirostral type of the genus. The Zosterops Javanica (Sylvia
Javamca, Horsf.) so closely resembles Wilson’s bird in plumage, that they might,
on a cursory examination, be thought the sexes of one species. Their colours
differ only on the breast and belly, S. peregrina having these parts nearly white,
while in Zosterops Javamca they are olive-yellow: their bills,differently formed.—Sw. of course, are
DESCRIPTION
Of a specimen, killed at Cumberland House, lat. 54°, May 28, 1827.
Colour.—Upper surface of the head and neck blackish-grey, crown darker. The whole
of the back, wing and tail coverts, margins of the secondaries, tertiaries, posterior primaries
and tail feathers greenish-yellow, deepest on the rump and tail coverts. Quills and primary
coverts clove-brown; the first five or six primaries edged exteriorly with pearl-grey.
Middle tail feathers glossed with greenish-yellow, the others edged with the same ; the three
outer pairs have a white spot on the ends of their inner webs, the spot being largest on the
exterior feather and very small on the third one. Under surface.— A streak, from the nostrils
over the eye, the ears, and chin pale yellowish-grey ; throat, vent; under tail coverts,
axillary feathers, and inner wing coverts, all white, the latter tinged near the borders of
the wing with yellow; breast, belly, and flanks tinged with oil-green, m il dusky ; rictus and
base of the lower mandible paler. Legs pale.-
Form, & c . Bill very like that of Vermimra rubricapilla, with the exception of the obsolete
notches alluded to above, and in being rather stouter. The wings differ in the three
first feathers being equal and longest, while the fourth is nearly two lines shorter: in Verm,
rubricapilla the first is shorter than the fourth. The tail- is slightly emarginated; the feathers,
except the central pair, are strongly truncated on their inner webs, as in S. rubricapilla.
Dimensions.
■T Length tota_l . . .In4ch- 7Lin - . Length of bill from rictus In0c h. L6in.
,, of tail . . 1 9 ,, of tarsus . . 0 8
„ of folded wing . 2 6 „ of middle toe . 0 6
’. jv of bill on the ridge 0 4 |
Length of middle nail
„ of hind toe
,, of hind claw
0 2
• 0 2f
0 2
[53.]. 1. Setophaga rhticilla. (Swainson.) Yellow-tailed Gnat-catcher.
S ub-f a m il y , Parian®, Sw ain s. Genus, Setophaga, Sw ain s. Zool.Journ., No. 9, Dec., 1827, p. 360.
Small American Redstart (Ruticilla minor Americana). E dwards, pi. 80, ann. 17-17- Male.
Yellow-tailed Fly-catcher (Muscicapa cauda lutea). I d em , pi. 257, ann. 1757* Female.
Muscicapa ruticilla. L in n .
Black-headed Warbler. L a t h . Syra., iv., p. 427, sp. 18. Female.
Yellow-tail Warbler. Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 406, No. 301. Female.
Black-headed Warbler. I d em , ii., p. 398, No. 282. Male.
American Redstart (Muscicapa ruticilla). W il so n , i., p. 103, pi. 6, f. 6. Male. I d em , v., p. 119,
pi. 45, f, 2. Young.
This beautiful little bird, the typical species of Mr. Sivainson’s genus Setophaga, is said to winter in the West Indies, and is found generally throughout North
America in summer up to the fifty-eighth parallel of latitude. Late in April it
appears in Pennsylvania, and on the Missouri, according to Mr. Say, by the
28th of that month. May is far advanced before it arrives on the banks of the
Saskatchewan ; and it quits both the fur-countries and the United States in the
beginning of September. It frequents moist, shady places in the Hudson’s Bay
lands, flitting about among the moss-grown and twisted stems of the tall willows
which skirt every marsh in those quarters. Like the Pine-creeper, as described
by Wilson, it shuns the observation of the passers-by, by running round to the
opposite side of a branch ; but the red of the inside of the wings readily betrays
it as it flies through these gloomy shades in pursuit of musquitoes and other
winged insects. It has a single acute, but very agreeable note.—R.
The foregoing particulars on the economy of Wilson’s American Redstart,
joined to the interesting memoirs given in the American Ornithology, illustrates
most fully and most completely the station which this elegant bird holds in the
scale of created beings. In the first place, it is an ambulatory Fly-catcher, that
is, pursuing insects from one station to another; and is therefore essentially distinct
from the true Fly-catchers, which sit still and watch for their prey. “ It is
almost perpetually in motion, and will pursue a party of retreating flies from the
tops of the tallest trees to the ground^BAm. Orn., p. 103. Secondly, although
a true Setophaga, it should nevertheless bear a very close resemblance to the
Sylvicolw, as united to them by close affinity ; and we consequently find Wilson
observing, that “ Several of our most respectable ornithologists have classed
this bird with the Warblers.” Thirdly, it sometimes “ traverses the branches of
trees lengthways,” and at others hides itself, as Dr. Richardson observes, like
a creeper: both of which habits should belong to a group which passes into
Accentor, by means of Se'iurus aurocapillus, since the latter bird has the first of