150 WAKE-ROBIN 



now and then leaping up eight or ten inches to 

 take his game from beneath some overhanging leaf 

 or branch. Thus each species has its range more 

 or less marked. Draw a line three feet from the 

 ground, and you mark the usual limit of the Ken- 

 tucky warbler's quest for food. Six or eight feet 

 higher bounds the usual range of such birds as the 

 worm-eating warbler, the mourning ground warbler, 

 the Maryland yellow-throat. The lower branches 

 of the higher growths and the higher branches of 

 the lower growths are plainly preferred by the black- 

 throated blue-backed warbler, in those localities 

 where he is found. The thrushes feed mostly on 

 and near the ground, while some of the vireos and 

 the true flycatchers explore the highest branches. 

 But the warblers, as a rule, are all partial to thick, 

 rank undergrowths. 



The Kentucky warbler is a large bird for the 

 genus and quite notable in appearance. His back 

 is clear olive-green, his throat and breast bright 

 yellow. A still more prominent feature is a black 

 streak on the side of the face, extending down the 

 neck. 



Another familiar bird here, which I never met 

 with in the North, is the gnatcatcher, called by 

 Audubon the blue-gray flycatching warbler. In 

 form and manner it seems almost a duplicate of the 

 catbird on a small scale. It mews like a young 

 kitten, erects its tail, flirts, droops its wings, goes 

 through a variety of motions when disturbed by 

 your presence, and in many ways recalls its dusky 



