The young in autumn is very different from either male or female in spring. The entire upper parts are of a continuous light olive-green; the under parts white; the sides of the head, neck, and breast ash-gray, shading insensibly into and tingeing the white of the chin and throat. No black streaks are visible above or on the cheeks, and the eye is surrounded by a continuous ring of white not seen in spring. In this plumage it has frequently been considered as a distinct species. The male in this plumage may usually be distinguished from the female by possessing a trace, or a distinct stripe, of chestnut on the flanks, the young female at least lacking it. HABITS. The geographical distribution of this common species during its season of reproduction is inferred rather than positively known. So far as I am aware, it is not known to breed farther south than Massachusetts. Yet it is probable that, when we know its history more exactly, it will be found during the breeding-season in different suitable localities from Pennsylvania to Canada. Mr. H. W. Parker, of Grinnell, Iowa, mentions this bird as common in that neighborhood. Until recently it was regarded as a rather rare species, and to a large extent it had escaped the notice of our older ornithological writers. Wilson could give but little account of its habits. It passed rapidly by him in its spring migrations. He did not regard it as common, presumed that it has no song, and nearly all that he says in regard to it is conjectural. Mr. Audubon met with this species but once, and knew nothing as to its habits or distribution. Mr. Nuttall, who observed it in Massachusetts, where it is now known to be not uncommon in certain localities, also regarded it as very rare. His account of it is somewhat hypothetical and inexact. Its song he very accurately describes as similar to that of the _D. æstiva_, only less of a whistle and somewhat louder. He represents it as expressed by _tsh-tsh-tsh-tshyia_, given at intervals of half a minute, and often answered by its mate from her nest. Its lay is characterized as simple and lively. Late in June, 1831, he observed a pair collecting food for their young on the margin of the Fresh Pond swamps in Cambridge. Mr. Allen has found this species quite common in Western Massachusetts, arriving there about the 9th of May, and remaining through the summer to breed. He states—and his observations in this respect correspond with my own—that during the breeding-season they frequent low woods and swampy thickets, nesting in bushes, and adds that they are rarely found among high trees. They leave there early in September.