_Sylvicola Canadensis._
_Motacilla Canadensis_, +Linn.+
_Sylvia Canadensis_, +Lath.+—Aud. pl. 155.
_Sylvia sphagnosa_ (_young_), +Bonap.+
[41] Length 5¹⁄₂ inches, expanse 8, flexure 2⁶⁄₁₀, tail 2¹⁄₈,
rictus ¹¹⁄₂₀, tarsus ⁸⁄₁₀, middle toe ⁶⁄₁₀.
In its winter residence with us, the Black-throat prefers the edges of
tall woods, in unfrequented mountainous localities. I have scarcely met
with it in the lowlands. The summits of Bluefields Peaks, Bognie and
Rotherwood, are where I have been familiar with it. It was there that
Sam shot the first specimen that I obtained, on the 7th of October, and
at the same lofty elevation. I afterwards saw it repeatedly. Three or
four of these lovely birds frequently play together with much spirit,
for half an hour at a time, chasing each other swiftly round and round,
occasionally dodging through the bushes, and uttering, at intervals, a
pebbly _chip_. They often alight, but are no sooner on the twig than
off, so that it is difficult to shoot them. I have observed one peck a
glass-eye berry, and in the stomachs of more than one, I have observed
many hard shining black seeds. But more frequently it leaps up at flies
and returns to a twig. At other times I have noticed it flitting and
turning about in the woods, apparently pursuing insects, and suddenly
drop perpendicularly fifteen or twenty feet, to the ground, and there
hop about. Restlessness is its character: often it alights transversely
on the long pendent vines and withes, or on slender dry trees, hopping
up and down them without a moment’s intermission, pecking at insects.
It is generally excessively fat, and what is rather unusual, the fat is
as white as that of mutton.
In the middle of March I met with it in the neighbourhood of Spanish
town, and, on the 9th of April, Sam found it at Crabpond, for the
last time, soon after which it, no doubt, deserted its insular for a
continental residence.
The form of the beak as well as the habits, of this bird, indicate an
approach to the Flycatchers.
In the Ornithology of M. Ramon de la Sagra’s Cuba, this species is
figured, under the name of Bijirita, which, however, appears to
be common to the Warblers. “Though migratory, it seems to breed
occasionally in the Antilles, for M. de la Sagra has killed in Cuba,
young ones, which were doubtless hatched in the island.”