590 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Top and sides of head gray, the back, rump and upper tail-coverts bright 

 olive-green; wing and tail feathers dusky, edged with olive and often margined at the 

 tips with white; a yellowish white streak from the forehead over the eye; under parts 

 white or grayish white, purest on the belly and under tail-coverts, grayer and often yellowish 

 on throat and breast; no wing-bars or conspicuous tail-markings. Adult female similar 

 to male, but with some olive-gi'een on the top of the head and the under parts usually 

 washed with yellowish. Rather larger than the Nashville. 



Length 4.50 to 5 inches; wing 2.75; tail L60 to 2. 



269. Northern Parula Warbler. Compsothlypis americana usneae Brewst. 



(648a) 



Synonyms: Blue Yellow-backed Warbler, Blue Yellow-back, Northern Blue Yellow- 

 back. — Sylvia americana, Bonap., 1826. — Parula americana, Bonaj)., 1838, and most 

 authors until 1884. — Compsothlypis americana, Stejn., 1884, part, A. O. U., Check-list, 

 1886, part, and most recent authors. — Compsothlypis americana usneae, Brewster, 1896. 



Smallest of our warblers. Gray-blue above, with a conspicuous patch 

 of greenish-yellow in the middle of the back; throat and breast mainl}^ 

 yellow, the latter with a broad girdle of mottled chestnut and black; two 

 white wing-bars, and half the tail-feathers white spotted. 



Distribution. — New England, New York and westward along the northei'n 

 tier of states, and northward into the Maritime Provinces and Ontario, 

 migrating southward beyond the United States in winter. 



This beautiful little warbler is not uncommon during migration in 

 most parts of the state, although it seems to be irregularly distributed. 

 It is rather late in arriving from the south, although S. E. White reported 

 it at Grand Rapids in 1890 as early as April 22, and again on April 30 

 and May 2. In Ingham county it usually comes between the 5th and 

 15th of May, and specimens have been killed on Spectacle Reef Light, 

 Lake Huron, as early as May 5 and 7, 1889 and May 11, 1888,'while others 

 struck that light on May 17, 1885, May 19, 1893 and May 21," 1891. The 

 species also remains rather late in the fall, since specimens were killed 

 on Presque Isle Light, Lake Huron, September 15, 1890, Spectacle Reef 

 Light, September 17. 1893, and one was taken on Charity Island, September 

 26, 1910 (N. A. Wood). Undoubtedly a good many linger until the latter 

 part of September, and Mr. Swales records one in the neighborhood of 

 Detroit October 14, 1905, and J. C. Wood took one October 16, 1909. 



In its habits it combines the actions of warbler, chickadee and kinglet, 

 as it often hangs head downward from a terminal bud or a bunch of leaves, 

 and frequently hovers Hke a kinglet before a leaf or flower. It also creeps 

 up and down branches, and in fact takes any position possible to any one 

 of oui- small birds. 



Its food seems to consist entirely of insects, and it must be very useful 

 to the horticulturist in its destruction of plant-lice, leaf-rollers and span- 

 worms. During its migration it is perhaps rather more likely to be found 

 among hardwood growths than among the evergreens, but its presence 

 seems mainly determined by the abundance of its insect food and it 

 frequents alike willow thickets, orchards and the tops of the higher forest 

 trees. 



Undoubtedly it nests throughout a large part of the state, but owing 

 to the character of the places frequented it is seldom noted dui'ing the 

 nesting season, and the nest appears to have l)een found only n, few times. 



