112 BIRDS OF AMERICA 



to the scored trunks and gnarled boughs of the forest kings; some peep from the thicket, 

 the coppice, the impenetrable mantle of shrubbery that decks tiny watercourses, playing 

 at hide-and-seek with all comers; others more humble still descend to the ground, where 

 they glide with pretty, mincing steps and affected turning of the head this way and that, 

 their delicate flesh-tinted feet just stirring the layer of withered leaves with which a past 

 season carpeted the ground." 



BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER 

 Mniotilta varia {Litnurus) 



A. O. U. N'uml)er 636 See Color Plate gj 



Other Names. — Black and White Creeper; Blue and 

 White Striped or Pied Creeper ; Black and White 

 Creeping Warbler ; Creeping Warbler ; Striped War- 

 bler ; Varied Creeping Warbler ; Whitepoll Warbler. 



General Description. — Length, 5l< inches. Plum- 

 age, black and white in stripes. Bill, shorter than head 

 and very slender; wings, long and pointed; tail, even 

 or very slightly forked, the feathers rather narrow. 



Color. — Adult Male: Crown with a broad center 

 stripe of white and two still broader lateral stripes of 

 black, slightly glossed with blue; rrst of upper parts 

 (e.xcept wing- and tail-feathers), slightly glossy blue- 

 black, the back and shoulders streaked zvith white, mid- 

 dle and greater wing-coverts, broadly tipped with white 

 (forming two conspicuous bands'), and inner wing-quills, 

 broadly edged with white; secondaries and primaries, 

 grayish black narrowly edged with gray; middle tail- 

 feathers, black centrally, gray laterally, the gray 

 broader; other tail-feathers, grayish-black narrowly 

 edged with gray, the two outermost with a large space 

 of white on inner web, and all with inner webs edged 

 with white; eye-ring and a broad stripe above the eyes, 

 white; below this an elongated patch of slightly glossy 

 blue-black covering lores and sides of head ; a broad 

 white cheek stripe ; under parts, mainly white, but throat 

 usually black ; sides, from chest to flanks, inclusive, 

 broadly streaked or striped with blue-black ; under tail- 



coverts, black centrally, broadly margined with white; 

 bill, black; iris, brown; legs and feet, dusky horn color. 

 Adult Female: Smaller and much duller in color, the 

 white everywhere more or less tinged with buffy-brown- 

 ish ; the throat, white; the lores, wholly pale grayish; 

 the sides of head pale buffy-grayish margined above by 

 a narrow streak behind eye of black; streaks of sides 

 much less distinct, becoming grayish on sides of chest ; 

 and flanks strongly tinged with brownish-buff; bill, 

 black. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest ; On ground at foot of tree, 

 bush, stump, or rock, among upturned roots or along- 

 side a log; rather bulky; constructed of dead leaves, 

 strips of bark, grasses, weed stems, lined with hair; 

 sometimes partly roofed, in half-hearted imitation of 

 the Oven-bird's home. Eggs : Normally s, white or 

 creamy speckled and spotted all over with brown and 

 chestnut, the markings usually collecting in wreath 

 formation around large end. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America, north to 

 upper Mackenzie valley. Hudson Bay, breeding south- 

 ward to Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, 

 (probably to upper sections of other Gulf States) ; 

 wintering from the Gulf States southward throughout 

 the West Indies, Mexico, and Central America to 

 Colombia and Venezuela ; accidental in California and 

 in the Bermudas. 



Bird-names of popular origin often reveal 

 queer inisapprehensions as to the birds concerned, 

 but the name " Black and White Creeper," by 

 which this bird has commonly been known, has 



the advantage of being accurately descriptive. 

 For the bird certainly is black and white ; and 

 furthermore it creeps about on the tree trunks 

 and branches with even more celerity and skill 



Photo by H, K, J..h 



MALE BLACK AND WHITE WARILER FEEDING YOUNG 



