170 SPRING AT THE CAPITAL. 



interesting, though quite rare. I meet with him in 

 low, damp places in the woods, usually on the steep 

 «ides of some little run. I hear at intervals a clear 

 strong, bell-like whistle or warble, and presently catch 

 a glimpse of the bird as he jumps up from the ground 

 to take an insect or worm from the under side of a 

 leaf. This is his characteristic movement. He be- 

 longs to the class of ground warblers, and his range 

 is very low, indeed lower than that of any other 

 species with which I am acquainted. He is on the 

 ground nearly all the time, moving rapidly along, 

 taking spiders and bugs, overturning leaves, peeping 

 under sticks and into crevices, and every 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 Kentucky warbler's quest for food. 

 Six or eight feet higher bounds the usual range of 

 Buch birds as the worm-eating warbler, the mourning 

 ground warbler, the Maryland yellow-throat. The 

 ower 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 

 Du and near the ground, while some of the vireos and 

 jhe true fly-catchers explore the highest branches 

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

 rank nndergrowths. 

 The Kentucky warbler is a large bird for the genu* 



