Chapter XII 

 WOOD WARBLERS 



"While May bedecks the naked tre«« 

 With tassels and embroideries, 

 And many blue-eyed violets beam 

 Along the edges of the stream, 

 I hear a voice that seems to say, 

 Now near at hand, now far away, 

 'Witchery-witchery-witchery!' " 

 *^ The Maryland Yellow Throat^' — Henry van Dyke. 



The Wood Warblers belong to an exclusively 

 American family, numbering in all, according 

 to Mr. Chapman, about one hundred and fifty- 

 five species, some seventy of which visit the 

 United States. All these, however, are not 

 found in any one locality during the nesting 

 season, but they are scattered over the whole 

 country, reaching far north into Canada, even 

 to Alaska. After the young are reared they 

 withdraw to the Southern States or beyond our 

 southern border, except for a few varieties, 

 of which scattering members even brave the 

 rigors of the northern winter. These few indi- 

 viduals subsist during the winter months upon 

 berries, but the great army of Warblers are 

 almost exclusively insect feeders, and so pass 

 wxU below the frost region, where they may be 

 sure of a constant food supply. 



Many Warblers are late arrivals in spring, 



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