P I N E - S W A M P W A R B L E R .
Their food consists entirely of insects. Their flight is short, low,
with a tremulous motion of the wings, unless when in pursuit of their
prey. They all retire southward in the beginning of October.
SYLVIA SPHAGNOSA, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 85.
PINE SWAMP WARBLER. SYLVIA PUSILLA, Wils. Amer..Ornith. vol. v. p. 100, pi. 43.
fig. 4—Nuttall, part i. p. 406.
Adult Male. Plate CXLVIII. Fig. 1.
Bill of ordinary length, nearly straight, broader than deep at the
base, tapering, compressed toward the acute tip. Nostrils basal, oval,
exposed. Head of ordinary size, neck short, body rather full. Feet of
ordinary length, slender; tarsus compressed, covered anteriorly with a
few long scutella, sharp behind ; toes free, scutellate above; claws arched,
much compressed, acute.
Plumage soft and blended, slightly glossed. Wings of ordinary
length, the first quill longest. Tail longish, slightly emarginate, the
feathers pointed.
Bill black above. Iris dark-brown. Legs flesh-coloured. The general
colour of the plumage above is a rich olive-green, the quills and
tail-feathers margined with paler; at the base of the primary quills a
white spot, part of which is apparent beyond the primary coverts. A
yellowish-white line over the -eye, and a spot of the same beneath it.
Cheeks and sides of the neck olivaceous. The under parts ochre-yellow,
tinged with brown below the wings.
Length 5 | inches, extent of wings 7] ; bill along the ridge / j , along
the edge -\ ; tarsus | .
Adult Female. Plate CXLVIII. Fig. %.
The Female resembles the male, but is paler in its tints.
HOBBLE BUSH.
VIBURNUM LANTANOIDES, Mich. Fl. Amer. voL i. p. 179. Pursh. Fl. Amer. Sept.
voL i. p. 202.—PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA, Linn.
This species, which grows in the woods, from Canada to Virginia, is
characterized by its large suborbicular, subcordate, unequally serrate,
acute leaves, its dense cymes, and ovate berries, which are at first red. but
ultimately black.
THE S H A R P - T A I L E D FINCH.
FRINGILLA CAUDAGUTA. WILS.
P L A T E C X L I X . MALE, FEMALE, AND NEST.
THIS species and the Fringilla maritima spend the winter among the
salt marshes of South Carolina, where I have observed thousands of both
late in December, and so numerous are they, that I have seen more than
forty of the latter killed at one shot. At that season, the neighbourhood
of Charleston seems to be peculiarly suited to their habits, and there they
are found in great abundance along the mouths of all the streams that
flow into the Atlantic. .When the tide is out, they resort to the sedgy
marshes, but on the approach of the returning waters, they take whig and
alight along the shores and on the artificial banks formed for the protection
of the rice fields.
The flight of this species is so different from that of any other finch,
that one can easily know them at first sight, if he only observes that when
flying from one spot to another, they carry the tail very low. During
winter, both species are provided with an extra quantity of feathers on
the rump. This circumstance has not a little surprised me, when I found
them residing in a climate where the Blue Heron (Ardea cojrulea) also is
now and then to be seen in the young state during winter. I am indeed
of opinion that most birds of this species and of the other remain here
the whole year, and that if some go farther south, they must be the
weaker and younger birds, whose constitution is unable to bear the least
degree of cold.
These Finches keep so much about the water, that they walk upon
the floating weeds as unconcernedly as if on land, or on any drifting garbage
raised from the mud at high tides; they congregate and feed together,
and doubtless are constant companions until the spring, when
these species separate for the purpose of breeding.
The Sharp-tailed Finch is rather silent, a single tweet being all that I
have heard it utter. In spring their attempts to sing can hardly be said
to produce a series of notes that can be dignified by the name of song.
They feed on the smaller species of shell-fish, on shrimos, and aquatic in