586 MICHICIAN BIRD LIFE. 



The food like that of the other members of the genus, consists mainly 

 of insects, and so far as we know has no marked iDeculiarities. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Forehead and crown bright yellow, the rest of the xipper parts bluish 

 gray, and this color shading the sides below; lores, cheeks and most of the throat and upper 

 breast velvet black; a white stripe above the eye, another and broader one running back- 

 ward from the base of the lower mandible to the side of the neck, separating the black 

 of the cheeks from that of the throat; middle of the breast and belly white, sometimes in 

 full plumage tinged with yellow; two conspicuous yellow wing-bars, often so broad as 

 to run together into a single large patch; three outer pairs of tail-feathers with large white 

 blotches on the inner webs; bill black. Adult female similar, but the black areas all re- 

 placed by light slate, and the yellow of the crown mostly replaced by bright olive-green. 



Length 4 to 5 inches; wing 2.40 to 2.50; tail about 2. 



266. Nashville Warbler. Vermivora rubricapilla rubricapilla (ir?7so/i). (645) 



Synonyms: Nashville Swamp Warbler. — Sylvia rubricapilla, Wilson, 1812. — Sylvia 

 ruficapilla, Aud., 1831. — Helminthophaga ruficapilla, Baird, 1 858.^Helminthophila 

 ruficapilla, Ridgw., 1882, A. O. U. Check-list, 1886. — Vermivora rubricapilla, Sw. and 

 Rich., 1831. 



Mainly olive above and bright yellow below, without spots or streaks; 

 crown bluish-gray with a partly concealed reddish-brown or chestnut 

 patch; no wdng bars or white tail spots. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America to the Plains, north to the Fur 

 Countries, breeding from northern United States northward. Mexico 

 and Guatemala in winter. 



This little warbler is a rather common migrant throughout the state 

 and a frequent summer resident throughout the northern half of the Lower 

 Peninsula and most of the Upper Peninsula. It seems to have a preference 

 in summer for tamarack swamps and low lying tracts of evergreens, especi- 

 ally about the margins and openings, but during migration it is found in 

 all sorts of situations, perhaps as often in orchards as elsewhere. In spite 

 of the fact that it invariably nests on the ground, the bird keeps well up 

 in the tops of trees during its migration and apparently gets the larger 

 part of its food from such places. We do not recall ever having seen one 

 on the ground, or searching for food within a foot or two of the ground. 

 The food consists mainly if not entirely of insects, and the 1)ir(l would be 

 decidedly beneficial w^ere it more abundant. 



The nest is usually well hidden in the thick herbage, or among the moss, 

 in comparatively low ground, and it has been repeatedly found embedded 

 in the peat moss (Sphagnu7n) so common in tamarack swamps. It is 

 neatly made, deeply hollowed, and consists of fine grasses, roots and 

 similar materials, often lined with long hairs. The eggs are three to six, 

 most often four or five, creamy white, thickly and minutely spotted with 

 reddish brown. They average .61 by .47 inches. 



The distribution in the breeding season is not well made out in Michigan, 

 since the bird is 'apparently not abundant anywhere during the nesting 

 season. So far as we are aware no nest has been found in any of the four 

 southern tiers of counties, and the bird is reported as a migrant only at 

 Plymouth, Petersburg, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor. On 

 the other hand. Dr. Gibbs found it a summer resident in Montcalm county; 

 Dr. Dunham in Kalkaska county; Widmann in Emmet county, and several 

 observers in various parts of the Upper Peninsula. It usually arrives 



