EASTERN NASHVILLE WARBLER HI 



vllle's calls a very small, dry chip, and a more metallic, louder cJiip, somewhat 

 Water-Thrush-like, are noteworthy. It also chippera like a young Warbler 

 or a Black-throated Green. 



Miss Stanwood (1910a) writes: 



One common song sounds like 'tsin, Hsin, Hsee, another stceeten, sweeten, 'tsee, 

 a third, sillnp, sillup, sillup, 'tsee-e-e-e-e-e. At other times the bird sings but 

 part of the song as aiceeten, sweet; or sweeten, 'tsee; or sweeta, stceeta, 'tsee; 

 or recombines them differently as sweeten, sweeten, sweeten, 'tsee-e-e-e-e-e. * * * 



The song is loud, constant, and heard all over the locality, coming principally 

 from the gray birches, but also from the maples, poplars, and evergreens. The 

 bird sings from the tree-tops, but likewise from the middle branches, and I have 

 seen it singing on the ground and just a few inches above it. My last record 

 of its song in 1908 was made the 17th day of July, the first, May the 14th. 

 Between these dates it sang well-nigh incessantly. 



Knight (1908) says that, while the female is building the nest, 

 "the male bird perches in a nearby sapling and sings leisurely ^pea- 

 cie-pea-cie-hit-i-hit-i-hit.'' " Wilson (1832) thought that the "notes 

 very much resembled the breaking of small dry twigs, or the striking 

 of small pebbles of different sizes smartly against each other for six 

 or seven times, and loud enough to be heard at the distance of thirty 

 or forty yards." Rev. J. H. Langille (1884) writes: "The song of 

 the Nashville Warbler is a composition, the first half of which is as 

 nearly as possible like the thin but penetrating notes of the Black- 

 and-white Creeping Warbler, while the last half is like the twitter 

 of the Chipping Sparrow." He writes it in syllables as '''•ke-tsee-ke- 

 tsee-he-tsee-chipe-ee-chip-ee-chip-ee-chip.'*'' 



The song has been said to resemble that of the chestnut-sided war- 

 bler, but the two are really quite distinct ; the song of the latter does 

 not end in a trill or in chipperings. It does, however, more closely 

 resemble the song of the Tennessee warbler. Dr. Eoberts (1936) 

 heard the two singing at the same time and noted this difference: 

 "The Nashville's song is an utterance of rather greater volume than 

 that of the Tennessee and differs, also, in the fact that it has a short, 

 rapidly weakening trill or slide, following a rather long and deliberate 

 prelude of four or five notes ; while the Tennessee has a brief prelude 

 with a long finishing trill, increasing in loudness and intensity to an 

 abrupt ending." 



Aretas A. Saunders contributes the following study of the song: 

 "The territory song of the Nashville warbler is in two parts, the first 

 a series of 2-note phrases, and the second a series of rapid notes, com- 

 monly lower in pitch and just twice as fast as the notes of the first 

 part; pa tipa tipa tipa tipa tititititititit. In 26 of my 29 records the 

 second part of the song is lower than the first. In the other three it is 

 higher. "The pitch of songs varies from G ' " to F sharp " ", or 

 five and a half tones. Single songs rarely vary more than one and a 



