The Female scarcely differs from the male in any perceptible degree, and is of the same size.
The Sweet Briar.
[Rosa rubiginosa?]—Icosandria Polygynia, Linn. Rosaceæ, Juss.
The Sweet Briar is very generally distributed in the United States. I have found it from Louisiana to the extremities of Nova Scotia along the Atlantic coast, and as far in the interior as I have travelled. The delicious odour of its leaves never fails to gratify the person who brushes through patches of it, while the delicate tints of its flowers reminds one of the loveliness of female beauty in its purest and most blooming state. Truly a "sweet home" must be the nest that is placed in an eglantine bower, and happy must be the bird that in the midst of fragrance is cheered by the warble of her ever loving mate.
THE CONNECTICUT WARBLER.
Sylvia agilis, Wils.
PLATE CXXXVIII. Male and Female.
I procured the pair represented in the Plate, on a fine evening, nearly at sun-set, at the end of August, on the banks of the Delaware River, in New Jersey, a few miles below Camden. When I first observed them, they were hopping and skipping from one low bush to another, and among the tall reeds of the marsh, emitting an often-repeated tweet at every move. They were chasing a species of spider which runs nimbly over the water, and which they caught by gliding over it, as a Swallow does when drinking. I followed them for about a hundred yards, when, watching a fair opportunity, I shot both at once. The weather was exceedingly sultry; and although I outlined both by candle-light that evening, and finished the drawing of them next morning by breakfast time, they had at that early hour become putrid, so that their skins could not be preserved. On opening them I counted upwards of fifty of the spiders mentioned above, but found no appearance of any other food. The sexual distinction was very apparent, and the brace proved a pair. They were not in the least shy, and in fact seemed to take very little notice of me, although at times I was quite close to them. These being the only individuals I ever met with, I am of course unable to say where the species breeds, or what are its migrations.
The plant on which they are placed grew abundantly on the spot where I procured them; and as they had just alighted on it when I shot them, it being moreover a handsome species, I thought it best to attach it to them.
Sylvia agilis, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 84.