Ii6 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



nearly always lined with red flower-stalks of hair moss. 

 Eggs: 3 to 6, usually 4, white thinly or thickly marked 

 with spots and blotches of Indian red, lavender, and 

 chestnut sometimes wreathed but more often evenly 

 •distributed. 



Distribution.— Eastern United States, more common 

 southerly, breeding northward to southern Connecticut, 



southeastern New York (lower Hudson valley), Penn- 

 sylvania, southern Wisconsin (vicinity of Racine), etc., 

 occasional in Massachusetts ; in migration casually to 

 Massachusetts, Vermont, western New York, southern 

 Ontario, and southern Wisconsin ; winters south to 

 Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and through eastern Mexico 

 and Central America to Panama. 



The Worm-eating Warbler is distinctly a 

 ground Warbler, a very differently acting bird 

 from most of the Warbler family. Most of them 

 are rather excitable, nervous birds of the tree- 

 tops. The Womi-eater is a quiet bird that 

 spends most of his time on the ground or within 

 a few feet of it, walking, not running; and some- 

 times creeping along a tree trunk like the Brown 

 Creeper or the Black and White Warbler. On 

 the ground this bird is rather cocky-acting, step- 

 ping along deliberately under the huckleberry 

 bushes or other dense undergrowth, with his tail 

 slightly raised. He has a smart and jaunty air 

 and also a shy disposition that reminds one of a 

 Thrush at his sprightliest. 



The Worm-eating W^arbler is not so rare as it 

 has been credited, ^^'here bird students have 

 given time to search his haunts, he has been found 



fairly common as far north as southern New 

 England, southern Michigan, and Nebraska. But 

 the search for him has to be itiade in ravines and 

 on dry forested hillsides where the undergrowth 

 makes a convenient nesting site. This bird loves 

 his home locality. It has been frequently ob- 

 served how year after year the birds will come 

 back to the same thicket, building their new 

 nest within sight of the old ones. 



Its ordinary song is a weak affair, closely 

 resembling that of the Chipping Sparrow, but 

 Mr. Burroughs says: "The bird has a flight 

 song, uttered near sundown, nearly as brilliant 

 as that of the Oven-bird." { MS.) The call is a 

 sharp dst, and he who watches closely and 

 silently in the tangle when it is heard may be 

 rewarded bv a sight of this bird with the buff and 

 black striped head. 



Other Names.— Blue-Winged Yellow Warbler ; Blue- 

 Winged Swamp Warbler. 



General Description. — Length, 434 inches. Upper 

 parts, olive-green ; under parts, lemon-yellow. Bill, 

 shorter than head, narrowly wedge-shaped, the tip very 



BLUE-WINGED WARBLER 

 Vermivora pinus ( Liniucus). 



\ O. V. Number 641 See Color Plate 93 



moderately long ; tail, about A4 length of 



acute : wmg 



wing, even or nearly even, the feathers narrow. 



Color.^ Adult M.\le : Forehead and crown, bright 

 lemon yellow: hack of head, hindneck. back, shoulders, 

 rump, and upper tait-coverls. bright olire-iireen. more 



Photo by H. K 



BUTE-WINGED WARBLER FEEDING YOUNG 



