The Black and White Warbler {Mniotuta varia) 



By Gerard Alan Abbott 



Length: 4^2 to 5^^ inches. 



Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from central Mackenzie, southern 

 Keewatin, northern Ontario, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to 

 eastern Texas, Louisiana, central Alabama and northern Georgia, west to South 

 Dakota; winters in Florida and from Colima and Nuevo Leon to Colombia. 

 Ecuador and Venezuela. 



A warbler in form and general make-up, a creeper by profession and practice, 

 this readily identified species, in its striped suit of black and white, may be ob- 

 served in any bit of eastern woodland. Here it flits from tree to tree or climbs 

 over the trunks and branches, scanning every crack and cranny for the insects 

 that constitute its chief food. Though not a lover of open country, it frequently 

 visits the orchard, where it performs its part in the task of keeping insect life 

 within due bounds. It nests on the ground and hides its domicile so skillfully 

 that it is not often found. None of the warblers are noted as songsters, but the 

 black and white creeper, as I like best to call it, emits a series of thin wiry notes 

 which we may call a song by courtesy only. In scrambling over the trunks of 

 trees it finds and devours many long-horned beetles, the parents of the destruc- 

 tive root-borers ; it also finds weevils, ants and spiders. 



Although placed at the head of the family of wood warblers, this modest 

 bird comes more naturally into comparison with creepers and nuthatches. He 

 clings and creeps, or rather hops, along the bark of the trunk and the larger 

 branches. He lacks much, it is true, of being the methodical plodder that the 

 brown creeper is ; he covers a great deal more surface in a given time and is 

 content with a rather superficial examination of any given territory. Then again 

 he secures variety, not merely by tracing out the smaller limbs, but by moving 

 in any direction — up or down or sidewise — or even by darting into the air now 

 and then to capture an insect. Not infrequently he may be seen gleaning from 

 the bark of bushes and saplings near the ground, or again in the tops of the very 

 tallest elms. Apple trees are cherished hunting grounds, and it is here that one 

 may cultivate a really intimate acquaintance. 



The black-and-white is among the earlier migrant warblers, coming as it does 

 during the last week in April and before the leaves are w'ell out. At this time 

 it is quite a conspicuous bird, in spite of the fact that its striped coat roughly ap- 

 proximates to the lights and shadows in the bark of a tree ; but it is usually silent. 

 When it does speak, a few days later, its voice is a wiry, squeaking song, likely 

 to be lost to ear altogether amid the full chorus of warbler week ; but when the 

 rush is over the singer will be heard. .\t best the song is a tiny sibilation of no 

 great carrj'ing power: "Squeech. weech, weech, weech, weech," lisped out in two 

 keys is one rendering. 



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