024 MICIIKiAN P.IUT) LIFE. 



Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick; wintering in the Stnitli Atlantic 

 and Gulf States, and the Bahamas. 



This appears to be one of our less common warblers in most parts of 

 the state, although a few are met with in migration almost ever}^ spring, 

 and it is one of the characteristic summer residents of the pine regions of 

 the north. 



It is one of the earlier w^arblers to come north, probably entering the 

 state by the first of May in average seasons and not infrequently earlier. 

 At Ann Arbor Mr. Norman A. Wood's earliest record is Ai^ril 21, 1888, 

 and it was observed on April 28, 1898. May 6, 1904, and April 26 and 27, 

 1907. While it shows a marked preference in its summer home for ever- 

 green trees, it mingles freely with other warblers during its migration 

 and then may be found almost anywhere. It is by no means a conspicuous 

 warbler, and since it prefers to sing from the higher parts of the pine trees, 

 is doubtless often overlooked by those who are not familiar with its notes. 



The full song is a mellow trill, suggesting in length and rapidity that 

 of the Chipping Sparrow, but the notes are clearer, sweeter and moi'e 

 musical. 



It builds a compact and deeply hollowed nest, usually on the branch 

 of a pine or other evergreen, at a considerable height from the ground, 

 often fifty feet or more. The eggs are white or grayish-white, spotted 

 with brown and gray, and average .69 by .53 inches. It has been found 

 nesting in northern Illinois and probably it nests in favorable localities 

 throughout Michigan, but most abundantly in the northern part of the 

 state. Actual records of nests however are not numerous. Miss Harriet 

 H. Wright, of Saginaw writes that in the northw^est corner of Iosco county 

 she found two nests where the parents were feeding young, in pines, on a 

 sandy knoll a little distance from the Au Sable River, during the last 

 week of June, 1907; and there is a record of a nest in IMason count}- con- 

 taining nearly full grown young on July 12 (Chaney, Auk, XXVII, 1910, 

 277). 



Dr. Gibbs states that in Ottawa county, in 1879, the species was more 

 or less common in summer, but was seldom found out of the tops of the 

 tallest pines. He says "All day the simple notes can be heard issuing 

 from the lofty pines, but few guns would bring the specimen from such 

 a height." He states further that in Wexford county, about Cadillac, 

 it was common and well distributed in 1882, and could always be found 

 in the proper localities, while on May 6, 1883 he found a pinery in Montcalm 

 county full of them, and in that region he considered it the commonest 

 warbler of the pine sections. He also found it abundant in June in Newaygo 

 county, and in Lake county as late as October 12, 1883. 



It is perhaps somewhat more addicted to a creeping habit than most of 

 its congeners, but the name "Pine Creeper" is hardly warranted, since 

 it is a typical warbler, feeding much on insects of all kinds, in the foliage 

 as well as on trunks and branches, and not infrequently taking insects 

 on the Aving. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Above, uniform rather dull olive-green, including the sides of the head 

 and neck; under parts yellow, often greenish, brightest on throat and breast, fading to 

 (hill white on belly and luider tnil-coAcrts; two white or grayish white wing-bars; two or 

 tin-ee pairs of outer tail-feathers mostly white (both webs) near tips; eyelids and a streak 

 over the eye usually yellow. I'lMiialc similar, but with much less color; above grayish- 



