Warblers SONG-BIRDS. 



Song: Feeble — " Que-ar-Que-ar-Que-ar," a note wliich Audubon 



says sounds like the breaking of twigs. 

 Season : Summer resident, perhaps, from late April to September and 



October, but only plentiful as a migrant. 

 Breeds : From New England northward. 

 Nest: On the ground, sometimes in mossy banks. Nest made of 



fibres, pine-needles, etc. , with a lining of the softer grasses and 



hair. 

 Eggs : 4, blush white (if fresh), thickly speckled. 

 Bange: Eastern North America to the Plains, north to the Fur 



Countries. Mexico in winter. 



This brilliant Warbler is a common summer resident from 

 Massacbusetts northward, but I think irregularly so in this 

 part of Connecticut. It visits us freely, however, in May 

 or sometimes the last week in April, and usually appears in 

 greater numbers on its return trip in the fall. They are shy 

 birds, prying about the borders of woodlands, and here, in 

 the fall migration, they haunt a belt of wild hemlocks that 

 border the rocky banks of a stream ; Dr. Warren says that 

 in the southward migration in Pennsylvania, they are seen 

 in small parties feeding among the willows along the banks 

 of streams and ponds. 



The name " Nashville " was applied to this Warbler by 

 Wilson, who discovered it near Nashville, Tenn., but it is 

 another case of a poor name for a beautiful bird, and, like so 

 many other titles, unsatisfactory in the extreme. The ac- 

 cepted English name of a bird should embody some of its 

 personal attributes, as the Latin title frequently does ; 

 ruficapilla, from rufuSy red, and capilla, hair, signifies that 

 the bird has red markings on his head. Why is Nashville 

 given as an English equivalent ? The American Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union has a magnificent chance to show its inventive 

 ability in such cases, and then, perhaps, the Wood Warblers, 

 as a family, may be better known by the masses. 



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