608 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



species it rises to a slij2;litly higher key at the close, while the Cerulean's 

 ditty is uniform throughout." Langille says: "Its song may be imitated 

 by the syllables 'pheet, pheet, pheet, pheet, ridi, idi, e-e-e-e-e-e-e;' be- 

 ginning with several soft warbling notes and ending in a rather pi-olonged 

 but quite musical squeak." 



Its food does not seem to differ materially from that of other arboreal 

 warblers; it is probably beneficial, certainly not injurious to the agri- 

 culturist. 



TECHNICAL DESCKII'TION. 



Adult mule: Al)()vc 1)rii;iit !ir:iyisli-l)luf, dftcii ck-ar blue on foreliead and crown, more 

 or less streaked with lil;i(k (in llic hack; cliiii, thmat, and sides of neck pure white, as is 

 also tlic middle of (he hrcast ainl lu'lly; an iniiierfcct hand of bluish or black streaks across 

 the upper l)roast, and sides streaked with the same; wings brownish-hhick, the tertials 

 often edi;od with white, and two white bars across the coverts; tail-feat licrs black, niarj^ined 

 externally with blue, all the feathers except tiic central pair witli rounded wliite patches 

 on the inner webs. Female showing very little blue; the upper parts olive-green, merely 

 glossed with blue; the lower parts soiled whitish, often yellowish or even buffy. Length 

 4 to 5 inches; wing 2.40 to 2.70; tail 1.70 to 1.90; female decidedly sinaller. 



276. Chestnut-sided Warbler. Dendroica pensylvanica (Linn.). (659) 



Synonyms: Yelkjw-crowned Warbler, Quebec Warbler. — Motacilla jDcnsylvanica, 

 Linn., 1706. — Sylvia pensylvanica, Wils., 1810. — Sylvia icterocephala, Lath., 1790. — 

 Dendroica (or Dcndroeca) pennsylvanica of most recent authors. 



Figure 137. 



The whole top of head is yellow, the under parts clear white, except 

 for a broad stripe of chestnut which runs along each side from neck to tail. 



Distribution. — Eastern United States and Southern Ontario, west to 

 Manitoba and the Plains, breeding southward to central Illinois and 

 northern New Jersey, and in the Appalachian highlands probably to 

 northern Georgia. Visits the Bahamas, eastern INIexico, Central America 

 and Panama in winter. 



An abundant migrant throughout the entire state, and in all but the 

 southern half of the Lower Peninsula an abundant summer resident. 



In the latter region it nests regularly, but less com- 



monly, so that it is reported as not breeding by 

 several observers in the southern counties. Never- 

 theless a few doidjtlcss breed in every county in the 

 state, and in the higher parts of the Lower Peninsula 

 and in the Upper J'eninsula it is one of the most 

 abundant warblers diuing the summer, frequenting 

 open hardwood and second growth regions and 

 shovNdng a decided preference for shrubby fields , . , , 



1,111 '■■ en . Tj-ii EiR. 137. Chestnut-sided 



and the bushy margms of forests. It is seldom warbier. From Hoflfmann's 

 found in the evergreen swamps or the dense woods, ^I'^'l^]^- Houshton, Mifflin 

 but on the contrary is often found in thickets along 



the roadsides and in briar patches and tangles along the borders of the 

 smaller swamps. 



It arrives from the south from about the first of May in the southern 

 counties to the 15th or 20th of the month in the northern parts of the 

 state. Mr. Norman A. Wood gives the average date for twenty-five 

 years at Ann Arbor as May 11, but it has been seen there as early as April 



