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Pine Warbler (Dendroica vigorsii) Wood Warbler family Called also: PINE-CREEPING WARBLER Length— 5. 5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow. Male—Yellowish olive above; clear yellow below, shading to grayish white, with obscure dark streaks on side of breast.

Two whitish wing-bars; two outer tail feathers partly white. Female—Duller; grayish white only faintly tinged with yellow underneath. Range—North America, east of the Rockies; north to Manitoba, and south to Florida and the Bahamas. Winters from southern Illinois southward. Migrations—March or April. October or later. Common summer resident.

The pine warbler closely presses the myrtle warbler for the first place in the ranks of the family migrants, but as the latter bird often stays north all winter, it is usually given the palm. Here is a warbler, let it be recorded, that is fittingly named, for it is a denizen of pine woods only; most common in the long stretches of pine forests at the south and in New York and New England, and correspondingly uncommon wherever the woodsman’s axe has laid the pine trees low throughout its range. Its “simple, sweet, and drowsy song,” writes Mr. Parkhurst, is always associated “with the smell of pines on a sultry day.” It recalls that of the junco and the social sparrow or chippy.

Creeping over the bark of trees and peering into every crevice like a nuthatch; running along the limbs, not often hopping nervously or flitting like the warblers; darting into the air for a passing insect, or descending to the ground to feed on seeds and berries, the pine warbler has, by a curious combination, the movements that seem to characterize several different birds.

It is one of the largest and hardiest members of its family, but not remarkable for its beauty. It is a sociable traveller, cheerfully escorting other warblers northward, and welcoming to its band both the yellow redpolls and the myrtle warblers. These birds are very often seen together in the pine and other evergreen trees in our lawns and in the large city parks. 200

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Conspicuously Yellow and Orange

Prairie Warbler (Dendroica discolor Wood Warbler family Length—4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch and a half shorter than the English sparrow. Male—Olive-green above, shading to yellowish on the head, and with brick-red spots on back between the shoulders. A yellow line over the eye; wing-bars and all under parts bright yellow, heavily streaked with black on the sides.

Line through the eye and crescent below it, black. Much white in outer tail feathers. Female—Paler; upper parts more grayish olive, and markings less distinct than male’s. Range—Eastern half of the United States. Nests as far north as

New England and Michigan. Winters from Florida southward. Migrations—May. September. Summer resident.

Doubtless this diminutive bird was given its name because it prefers open country rather than the woods—the scrubby undergrowth of oaks, young evergreens, and bushes that border clear-ings being as good a place as any to look for it, and not the wind-swept, treeless tracts of the wild West. Its range is southerly. The Southern and Middle States are where it is most abundant. Here is a wood warbler that is not a bird of the woods—less so, in fact, than either the summer yellowbird (yellow warbler) or the palm warbler, that are eminently neighborly and fond of pasture lands and roadside thickets. But the prairie warblers are rather more retiring little sprites than their cousins, and it is not often we get a close enough view of them to note the brick-red spots on their backs, which are their distinguishing marks. They have a most unkind preference for briery bushes, that discourage human intimacy. In such forbidding retreats they build their nest of plant-fibre, rootlets, and twigs, lined with plant-down and hair.

The song of an individual prairie warbler makes only a slight impression. It consists “ of a series of six or seven quickly repeated %ees the next to the last one being the highest ” (Chapman). But the united voices of a dozen or more of these pretty little birds, that often sing together, afford something approaching a musical treat.

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Wilson’s Warbler (Sylvania pusilla Wood Warbler family Called also: BLACKCAP; GREEN BLACK-CAPPED WAR-

BLER ; WILSON’S FLYCATCHER

Length—4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch and a half shorter than the English sparrow. Male—Black cap; yellow forehead; all other upper parts olive-green; rich yellow underneath. Female—Lacks the black cap. Range—North America, from Alaska and Nova Scotia to Panama.

Winters south of Gulf States. Nests chiefly north of the

United States. Migrations—May. September. Spring and autumn migrant.

To see this strikingly marked little bird one must be on the sharp lookout for it during the latter half of May, or at the season of apple bloom, and the early part of September. It passes northward with an almost scornful rapidity. Audubon mentions having seen it in Maine at the end of October, but this specimen surely must have been an exceptional laggard.

In common with several others of its family, it is exceedingly expert in catching insects on the wing; but it may be known as no true flycatcher from the conspicuous rich yellow of its under parts, and also from its habit of returning from a midair sally to a different perch from the one it left to pursue its dinner. A true flycatcher usually returns to its old perch after each hunt.

To indulge in this aerial chase with success, these warblers select for their home and hunting ground some low woodland growth where a sluggish stream attracts myriads of insects to the boggy neighborhood. Here they build their nest in low bushes or upon the ground. Four or five grayish eggs, sprinkled with cinnamon-colored spots in a circle around the larger end, are laid in the grassy cradle in June. Mr. H. D. Minot found one of these nests on Pike’s Peak at an altitude of 1 1,000 feet, almost at the limit of vegetation. The same authority compares the bird’s song to that of the redstart and the yellow warbler.

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Yellow Redpoll Warbler (Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea Wood Warbler family Called also: YELLOW PALM WARBLER Length— 5.5 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female—Chestnut crown. Upper parts brownish olive greenest on lower back. Underneath uniform bright yellow, streaked with chestnut on throat, breast, and sides. Yellow line over and around the eye. Wings unmarked. Tail edged with olive-green; a few white spots near tips of outer quills. More brownish above i«n autumn, and with a grayish wash over the yellow under parts. Range—Eastern parts of North America. Nests from Nova Scotia northward. Winters in the Gulf States. Migrations—April. October. Spring and autumn migrant.

While the uniform yellow of this warbler’s under parts in any plumage is its distinguishing mark, it also has a flycatcher’s trait of constantly flirting its tail, that is at once an outlet for its superabundant vivacity and a fairly reliable aid to identification. The tail is jerked, wagged, and flirted like a baton in the hands of an inexperienced leader of an orchestra. One need not go to the woods to look for the restless little sprite that comes northward when the early April foliage is as yellow and green as its feathers. It prefers the fields and roadsides, and before there are leaves enough on the undergrowth to conceal it we may come to know it as well as it is possible to know any bird whose home life is passed so far away. Usually it is the first warbler one sees in the spring in New York and New England. With all the alertness of a flycatcher, it will dart into the air after insects that fly near the ground, keeping up a constant chip, chip fine and shrill, at one end of the small body, and the liveliest sort of tail motions at the other. The pine warbler often bears it company.

With the first suspicion of warm weather, off goes this hardy little fellow that apparently loves the cold almost well enough to stay north all the year like its cousin, the myrtle warbler. It builds a particularly deep nest, of the usual warbler construction, on the ground, but its eggs are rosy rather than the bluish white of others. In the Southern States the bird becomes particularly neigh- 203

Conspicuously Yellow and Orange

borly, and is said to enter the streets and gardens of towns with a chippy’s familiarity.

Palm Warbler or Redpoll Warbler (Dendroica palmarum) differs from the preceding chiefly in its slightly smaller size, the more grayish-brown tint in its olive upper parts, and the uneven shade of yellow underneath that varies from clear yellow to soiled whitish. It is the Western counterpart of the yellow redpoll, and is most common in the Mississippi Valley. Strangely enough, however, it is this warbler, and not bypochrysea, that goes out of its way to winter in Florida, where it is abundant all winter.

Yellow Warbler (Dendroica cestiva) Wood Warbler family Called also: SUMMER YELLOWBIRD; GOLDEN WARBLER;

YELLOW POLL

Length—4.75 to 5.2 inches. Over an inch shorter than the English sparrow. Male— Upper parts olive-yellow, brightest on the crown; under parts bright yellow, streaked with reddish brown. Wings and tail dusky olive-brown, edged with yellow. Female—Similar; but reddish-brown streakings less distinct.Range—North America, except Southwestern States, where the prothonotary warbler reigns in its stead. Nests from Gulf

States to Fur Countries. Winters south of the Gulf States, as far as northern parts of South America. Migrations—May. September. Common summer resident.

This exquisite little creature of perpetual summer (though to find it it must travel back and forth between two continents) comes out of the south with the golden days of spring. From much living in the sunshine through countless generations, its feathers have finally become the color of sunshine itself, and in disposition, as well, it is nothing if not sunny and bright. Not the least of its attractions is that it is exceedingly common everywhere: in the shrubbery of our lawns, in gardens and orchards, by the road and brookside, in the edges of woods—everywhere we catch its glint of brightness through the long summer days, and hear its simple, sweet, and happy song until the end of July. 204

SUMMER YELLOW-BIRD.

+5 Life-size.

Conspicuously Yellow and Orange

Because both birds are so conspicuously yellow, no doubt this warbler is quite generally confused with the goldfinch; but their distinctions are clear enough to any but the most superficial glance. In the first place, the yellow warbler is a smaller bird than the goldfinch; it has neither black crown, wings, nor tail, and it does have reddish-brown streaks on its breast that are sufficiently obsolete to make the coloring of that part look simply dull at a little distance. The goldfinch’s bill is heavy, in order that it may crack seeds, whereas the yellow warbler’s is slender, to enable it to pick minute insects from the foliage. The goldfinch’s wavy, curved flight is unique, and that of his “double” differs not a whit from that of all nervous, flitting warblers. Surely no one familiar with the rich, full, canary-like song of the “ wild canary,” as the goldfinch is called, could confuse it with the mild “Wee-chee, chee, cher-wee ’ ’ ofthe summer yellowbird. Another distinction, not always infallible, but nearly so, is that when seen feeding, the goldfinch is generally below the line of vision, while the yellow warbler is either on it or not far above it, as it rarely goes over twelve feet from the ground.

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