THE WARBLERS 

 Warbler Family — Mniotiltidce 



NO family of birds is more difficult for a begimier 

 to identify than the warblers. Reasons for this 

 fact are various. In the first place, warblers are small 

 and agile, and usually inhabit treetops, where it is hard 

 to see their plumage. The number of the species is large, 

 — 155 species are known, 74 of which are found in North 

 America, and 55 in the United States alone. Some of 

 the males wear a "Joseph's coat of many colors"; some 

 of the females are so different from their mates as to 

 puzzle an observer, and the young birds frequently differ 

 from both parents. Then, too, most warblers are not 

 gifted songsters, but utter only a weak trill. A number 

 of them are seen only during their migration to northern 

 woods; they linger too short a time to become more than 

 passing bird-acquaintances. 



Warblers are insectivorous and do not arrive until the 

 earth teems with insect life. Most of them depart for 

 the South as soon as insects begin to decrease in number 

 or disappear. They are very shy and migrate at night. 



Many are the disasters that befall them when they 

 journey near the sea-coast. In Dr. Wells W. Cooke's ar- 

 ticle entitled "Our Greatest Travelers" are the following 

 statements: "It is not to be supposed that these long 

 flights over the waters can occur without many casualties, 

 and not the smallest of the perils arises from the beacons 



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