WILSON'S PILEOLATED WARBLER 631 



waves it from side to side much after the manner of a Gnatcatcher. It fre- 

 quently darts out after flying insects and not infrequently descends to the ground 

 to search for food among the fallen leaves. When on the ground it hops about 

 briskly and often flutters its wings. 



J. Mertoii Swain (1904) says of the bird on its breeding ground: 

 "They feed in briery thickets, picking up insects very nimbly. They 

 have the talents of a Flycatcher, and capture much of their food on 

 the wing, but do not, like the Flycatcher, return to the same perch." 



Voice. — Like most wood warbler's songs, which in the main are 

 little more than a series of squeaky notes, or at most shrill whistles, 

 the song of Wilson's warbler is neither beautiful nor artistic. Yet 

 it stands out by reason of its brightness; the notes are delivered so 

 emphatically, are so sharply cut and staccato, and follow each other 

 in chattering haste so rapidly that the song has a distinctive quality 

 and is easily distinguished from those of those other warblers which 

 sing on about the same pitch. At times the song may suggest that of 

 the yellow warbler, but the latter, in comparison, has almost a drawl- 

 ing delivery ; at other times it may suggest that of the Nashville, but 

 here again the staccato quality marks it; it sometimes recalls for a 

 moment the song of the northern waterthrush, but as all the notes are 

 very short and never isolated, the resemblance at once vanishes; 

 occasionally there is a hint of the goldfinch's voice (I find this point 

 mentioned more than once in my notes of the last quarter of a cen- 

 tury), but the tone is too flat for a goldfinch — it lacks the sweet, 

 musical ring. 



The song is more or less varied, but there are not two distinct songs 

 as in the case of some warblers. In a common form the pitch drops 

 in the second half when, the notes becoming faster and more emphatic, 

 the song changes into a sort of chatter. I have heard this form given 

 over and over for half an hour or more with little or no change. More 

 rarely the pitch at the end may return to the original pitch, thus 

 dividing the song into three parts. Occasionally the song ends with 

 a single, emphasized note, and frequently neither pitch nor tempo 

 varies — a perplexing song at first, but the extreme liveliness of the 

 notes soon identifies the author. 



Gerald Thayer (Eaton, 1914) gives this accurate description: "Its 

 song suggests somewhat in miniature that of the Northern water 

 thrush although it is itself quite loud and rich, a bright, hurried, 

 rolling twitter, suddenly changed into more of a trill, richer and 

 somewhat lower in tone. The first portion of the song varies in 

 length and richness, sometimes longer and fuller in tone, more often 

 shorter and weaker than the second, while some individuals omit it 

 altogether, uttering only the trill when the song is rather difficult 

 to recognize. * * * The call note is a weak but ringing tschipy 



