WARBLERS 



133 



jlrcakrd icitli dusky ( suffused, especially on sides of 

 breast, with grayish-blue), the chest usually crossed by 

 a narrow band of blackish suffused with grayish-blue, 

 this band often interrupted in the middle, sometimes 

 wanting: bill, black, grayish-blue below; iris, brown; 

 legs and feet, brownish-dusky. Adult Fkmai.f, : Above, 

 varying from light bluish-gray to grayish olive-green, 

 the crown brighter (grayisli glaucous-blue to sage- 

 green), entirely- unstreaked ; wings and tail as in adult 

 male, but edgings, light greenish or olive-grayish instead 

 of bluish ; a whitish or pale yellowish stripe over eye ; 

 sides of head, grayish or grayish olive-green, darker 

 along upper margin, somewhat streaked with whitish or 

 pale yellowish toward the front; under jiarts dull wliite, 

 usually suffused with pale yellow (sometimes strongly 

 so), especially on sides of neck and across chest. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: Placed in forks of small 

 branches of deciduous trees, at some distance from 



trunk, and Irnni twenty In I'l fty feet up; compactly 

 built of fine grasses and pl.mt fibers securely bound 

 together by spiders' web^ and decorated with bits of 

 lichen. Eg(;s ; Usually ,i or 4. wliite. dull bluish or 

 greenish-white speckled with reddish-brown ami lilac 

 chiefly around large end. 



Distribution. — Eastern United States, chiefly west of 

 the Allegbenies ; breeding northward to eastern 

 Nebraska. Minnesota. Wisconsin. Michigan (as far as 

 Mackinac Island). Ontario, western and central New 

 York, eastward to eastern Maryland and western Vir- 

 ginia, southward to Tennessee. Louisiana, etc. ; casually 

 or irregularly northward to Connecticut, Rhode Island. 

 Long Island, and New Jersey; west re.gularly to edge 

 of the Great Plains, occasionally to Rocky Mountains; 

 in winter south to Cuba and Crand Cayman and through 

 eastern Mexico. Central .\merica. and Western South 

 America to central Peru and I'.olivia. 



Nothing looks more strange in otir northern 

 woods than the azure blue of the sky animated in 

 the personality of a Cerulean Warbler. Strange 

 it is because such dainty blues belong rather to 

 the tropics and even there are rare. Blue it is, 

 strong yet dainty, nut vivid, seeming even to be 

 too unreal to lie enduring. And animated it is, 

 belying the lirst impression of unreality by an 

 energetic manner that makes the bird noticeable. 

 Tf the \\'arbler has a green or brown background 

 he can he seen, but against the heaven's blue he 

 is lost to tlie eye. \^'ait for a damp day and he 

 will come dnwn intii the lower limbs of the trees 

 and the observations of him will be much im- 

 ])roved. 



It is mainly in swiuiipy woodland from the 

 Genesee and Monongahela valleys west tn the 



lower Missouri valley that the Cerulean Warbler 

 is common. 



This is another bird that. Cuming up out of 

 the Southwest in migratiun, has not been con- 

 tent with a Mississip]ii valley home, but has 

 pushed on into the Xortheast. There is some 

 difference of opinion as to the question of its 

 frequency a century ago in the East, but the 

 observations seem to show that there is a decided 

 increase in its numbers in central New York. 

 The accidental records along the Atlantic coast 

 do not seem to be increased by the gradually 

 a])i:/roaching northeastern boundary. 



The Cerulean is not a very attractive singer 

 but he is persistent. I lis .:(■('. s:cc, ccc. cc-cc-cc- 

 cep becomes to the ordinary listener but a part 

 i)f the Inizz iif summer. 



CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER 

 Dendroica pensylvanica (Liiiihciis) 



Other Names.— Golden-crowned IHycatcher ; iiloody- 

 side Warbler; Yellow-crowned Warbler; ( )uebec War- 

 bler. 



General Description. — Length, 5 inches. Upper 

 parts, white, grayish, and olive-yellow with black 

 streaks; under parts, white with jiatches of chestnut. 

 Pjill. shorter than head, slender, tapering gradually to 

 the tip ; wings, long and pointed ; tail, notched. 



Color.— .-\dult M.\le; Forchaul and cr,wu. olivc- 

 \clUn<\ the former becoming whitish in front, both 

 sometimes flecked with dusky ; lores, sjiace below eye, 

 cheeks, stripe behind eye. and hindneck. black, the last 

 two streaked with white, grayish, or yellowish, back of 



head usually with a central spot of white or yellowish; 

 sides of head, neck, chin, throat, and under |iarts, 

 white, yclicvcd by a broad lalcnil stnpc of rich chcsl- 

 nut . extending from rear of black cheek stripe along 

 the sides, usually to the flanks, but soinetimes not 

 beyond sides of breast; back and shoulders, broadly 

 streaked with black on a white, grayish, and olive- 

 yellow ground, the last-mentioned color usually pre- 

 vailing: rump, usually yellowish olive-green, sometimes 

 grayish, with or without black streaks ; upper tail- 

 coverts, black, broadly margined with light gray ( some- 

 times tinged with yellowish olive-green) tail black with 

 narrow olive-grayish edgings, the three outermost 



