TKOl'H AL OKKilN <>1" WAKIU.KKS 



Xot only do tlu-ir l>rijL,'ht colors sup^cst a tr()j)ical orij^iii of <nir warhlcrs, i)ut 

 tlitir whole niakc'-u|i is in kcrpiii;; with trojiioal surrounding's. Warblers are 

 thinlv feathered and delicately orj^'anized and most of thcni incapable of with- 

 standinj,' any {,'reat decree of cold. They are also almost exclusively insect eaters, 

 only a few of the family beinj^ at all vej^eterian. an<l these only tf) a comparatively 

 small extent. 



Hence, with them. mi},'ration is not a matter of choice, but is imperative. 

 Thev come to us on a particular errand for a few short months, and when 

 family cares are at an end, back they hie to the trojjics, the lands of warmth and 

 sunshine, which lend them to us for a brief season. Thus the true home of our 

 warblers is not where they nest, but where tiiey sjjend three-fourths of their 

 lives — not tlic north, but the south — not in the teiuperatc, but in the tropical 

 zones. 



SFECTACL'L.SK .MK.KATION (»F WARIiLERS 



That wonderful i)henomenon. bird migration, is illustrated by few birds so 

 clearly and convincingly as by our wood warblers. Assuredly no other birds — 

 unless it be the geese — migrate in such a spectacular manner. The stroller, in 

 late August or September, finds himself in the woods, the silence being broken 

 only by the drumming of a distant partridge, the chir])ing of insects, or other 

 familiar sounds which only emphasize the general quiet that prevails. 



Presto ! The scene changes ! The woods, apparently almost tenantless but 

 a moment before, are now filled with life of the most animated and intense kind. 

 Every shrub, every tree, has its feathered occupant. Our observer recognizes 

 perhaps a dozen or twenty species, representing several distinct families ; but prom- 

 inent among them, by reason of numbers, variegated plumage, graceful forms, 

 and active motions, are the wood warblers. 



Every individual is alert and busy, gliding from one twig to another near by. 

 or flying from one tree to the next, while from all sides come the soft calls and 

 notes of individual members of the flock, whose friendly converse has the effect, 

 if not the purpose, of keeping the individuals of the assemblage in touch with 

 each other and with the flock as a unit. In a few moments silence again reigns 

 where all was commotion and activity. The birds have passed on their seemingly 

 aimless course. 



If the observer would learn the solution of the mystery of the birds' evident 

 hurry, he has only to follow them for a time, when he will find that, however 

 erratic may seem the course of individual members of the flock, the flock as a 

 whole is steering a tolerably straight course southward. In other words, he is 

 in the midst of a flock of birds en route to their winter quarters and, in order 

 to economize time, feeding as they go. This, however, is not the only way 

 warblers migrate, nor is it the most important, since the greater part of the 

 long journey of many is performed by night. 



Anyone with good ears has only to listen on a clear, frosty nigiit in fall to 

 hear hundreds of warblers and other birds as they flit by, a few hundred yards 



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