THE CERULEAN WARBLER. 



(5 HIS beautiful little sky-blue 

 feathered creature is well 

 named Azure Warbler, or 

 again White- throated Blue 

 Warbler, and is the most abundant of 

 the genus here. 



It is a bird of the wood, everywhere 

 associated with the beautiful tall for- 

 ests of the more northern counties of 

 western New York, sometimes found 

 in the open woods of pasture-lands, 

 and quite partial to hardwood trees. 

 In its flitting motion in search of in- 

 sect-prey, and in the jerking curves of 

 its more prolonged flight, as also in 

 its structure, it is a genuine Wood 

 Warbler and keeps for the most part 

 to what Thoreau calls the "upper story" 

 of its sylvan domain. 



All Warblers, it has been said, de- 

 pend upon their markings rather 

 than song for their identity, which 

 renders the majority of the tribe of 

 greater interest to the scientist than 

 to the novice. Until you have named 

 four or five of the commonest species 

 as landmarks, you will be considerably 

 confused. 



Audubon described the song of the 

 Cerulean Warbler as " extremely sweet 

 and mellow," whereas it is a modest 

 little strain, says Chapman, or trill, 

 divided into sylables like rr^-^, see^ zee, 

 ze-ee-ee-eep^ or according to another 

 observer, rheet, rheet, rheet, rheet, ridi^ 

 idi^ e-e-e-e-ee ; beginning with several 

 soft warbling notes and ending in a 

 rather prolonged but quite musical 

 squeak. The latter and more rapid 

 part of the strain, which is given in 

 the upward slide, approaches an insect 

 quality of tone which is more or less 

 peculiar to all true Warblers, a song 

 so common as to be a universal char- 

 acteristic of our tall forests. 



It is not strange that the nest of this 

 species has been so seldom discovered, 

 even where the bird is very abund- 



ant during the breeding season. It is 

 built in the higher horizontal branches 

 of forest trees, always out some dis- 

 tance from the trunk, and ranging from 

 twenty to fifty feet above the ground. 

 One described by Dr. Brewer, found in 

 Ontario, near Niagara Falls, was built 

 in a large oak tree at the height of 

 fifty or more feet from the ground. 

 It was placed horizontally on the 

 upper surface of a slender limb be- 

 tween two small twigs ; and the branch 

 on which it was thus saddled was only 

 an inch and a half in thickness, be- 

 ing nine feet from the trunk of the 

 tree. The abandoned home was se- 

 cured with great difficulty. 



The nest is a rather slender fabric, 

 somewhat similar to the nest of the 

 Redstart, and quite small for the bird, 

 consisting chiefly of a strong rim firmly 

 woven of strips of fine bark, stems of 

 grasses, and pine needles, bound round 

 with flaxen fibres of plants and wool. 

 Around the base a few bits of hornets' 

 nests, mosses, and lichens are loosely 

 fastened. The nest within is fur- 

 nished with fine stems and needles, the 

 flooring very thin and slight. 



The bird is shy when started from 

 the nest, and has a sharp chipping 

 alarm-note common to the family. 



The Cerulean Warbler is found in 

 the Eastern States, but is more num- 

 erous west of the Allegheny moun- 

 tains, and throughout the heavily 

 wooded districts of the Mississippi val- 

 ley. In winter it migrates to Central 

 America and Cuba. The Warblers 

 are of unfailing interest to the lover of 

 bird life. Apart from the beauty of 

 the birds themselves, with their per- 

 petually contrasting colors among the 

 green leaves, their pretty ways furnish 

 to the silent watcher an ever changing 

 spectacle of the innocent life in the 

 1 tree-tops. 



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