Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/486

450 consists of insects, partly caught on the wing, but chiefly along the branches and twigs, where the little depredator seeks them out with great activity. The flight of this bird is short, rather low, and is performed by gently curved glidings. When ascending, however, it becomes as it were un- certain and angular.

The Orange-crowned Warbler breeds in the eastern parts of Maine, and in the British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Its nest is composed of lichens detached from the trunks of trees, intermixed with short bits of fine grass, and is lined with delicate fibrous roots and a proportionally large quantity of featliers. The eggs, which are from four to six, are of a pale green colour, sprinkled with small black spots. The nest is placed not more than from three to five feet from the ground between the smaller forks of some low fir tree. Only one brood is raised in the season, and the birds commence their journey southward from the middle of August to the beginning of September.

In autumn, it nearly loses the orange spot on its head, there being then merely a dull reddish patch, which is only seen on separating the feathers. In the breeding season, the part in question becomes as bright as you see it in the plate, in which are represented a pair of these birds, on a twig of the great huckleberry, which grows in East Florida. The young do not shew any orange on the head until the following spring.

Sylvia celata, Sap, in Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, voL L p. 169 — Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 88.

OaANGE-coLOUHED Warbleh, Sylvia celata, Ch. Bonaparte, Amer. Ornith. vol. i. j p. 45, pL 5, fig. 2 Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. 413.

Adult Male. Plate CLXXVIII. Fig. 1.

Bill longish, slender, straight, tapering to a very sharp point. Nos- trils basal, oval, feet of ordinary length, slender ; tarsus compressed, co- vered anteriorly with a few long scutella, sharp-edged behind, longer than the middle-toe ; toes scuteUate above, free ; claws arched, slender, com- pressed, acute.

Plumage blended, the feathers soft and tufty. Wings rather short, the second and third quills longest. Tail slightly emarginate, of ordinary length, the twelve feathers rather narrow, and tapering broadly to a point.

Bill dusky above, pale greyish-blue beneath. Iris hazel. Feet and