The prize composition shouM 1)c k-cpl l)v tlie library, posted on the bird 

 bulletin-board, and printed in the town or city paper. 



8. Publishing in the local paper what the library is doing for the children 

 in the schools in studying the birds of Indiana. 



Special announcement should be made of the talks on birds given at the 

 library, the prizes for the best bird compositions, exhibits of bird pictures, and 

 new bird books received. The library must make the subject interesting and the 

 new and best books on birds conspicuous. It is not sufficient for the library to 

 be a store house of books. It must call the attention of people to its new and 

 best books by advertising them and placing them v>here they may be seen. 



The Canadian Warbler Ovnsonia canadensis) 



By W. Leon Dawson 



Length : 5^ inches. 



Range : Eastern North America, west to the Plains and north to Newfound- 

 land. Labrador and Winnipeg. 



Food : Mostly insects. 



The male is active about the nest and feeds the female while she is incubating. 



Among the later migrants may usually be seen each season a few of these 

 exquisite fly-catching warblers. In their breeding haunts, which He far to the 

 north of us, they range low in the bushes and often descend to the ground, but 

 when traveling they seem to find better company in the treetops, and appear very 

 much at home there. There is something so chaste in the clear yellow of the 

 throat and chest, spanned though it is by a dainty necklace of jet, and something 

 so modest and winsome withal in the bird itself, that some of us go into reverent 

 ecstasies whenever we see one of them 



The song is only occasionally rendered during the migrations, but seems to 

 increase in frequency, as we should expect, as the bird proceeds northward. 

 Some have likened it to that of the Yellow Warbler, but to my ears it bears a 

 strong generic resemblance to that of the Hooded Warbler. At any rate, it is 

 clear, sprightly and vigorous. Chut, tutooit, tutooeet is one rendering, probably 

 less characteristic and complete than Mr. Thompson's classical interpretation, 

 "Rup-it-chee, rup-it-chee, rup-it-chit-it-lit." 



The Canadian is among the earliest of the returning warblers, having been 

 seen as early as August 24th. At this season the species is somewhat puzzling, 

 by reason of the frequent absence, or half suppression, of the characteristic 

 necklace. On the return journey, also, the birds are much more apt to be found 

 in thickets, or low in well watered glens. 



136 



