OF ORNITHOLOGY 49 



FAMILY IX SYLVICOLIDAE THE WARBLERS 



Latin Silra, woods; colo, J iiilial>it: sylvan. 



The group of Warblers, or the American Wood-Warblers, 

 as their name implies, are among the most interesting of all 

 the groups of North American birds. They are so exclusively 

 American, and the s])ecies are so numerous, as to render them 

 familiar, attractive, and not easily to be forgotten objects of 

 interest to every man, woman, and child throngliout the length 

 and breadth of our land. They occur, either as residents (dur- 

 ing Summer mostly) or migrants, everywhere throughout 

 North America ; and are also found in Central and South 

 America and the West India Islands. They form the greater 

 bulk of what are known as the " migratory birds " ; and their 

 movements are so extraordinary, so peculiar, and yet so regu- 

 lar, as to be altogether inexplicable. The questions evolved 

 in explaining their movements are so many and so involved 

 that no one answer, or even set of answers, will account for 

 all their actions. No rule can be set down fin- their occurring 

 as either resident or migrant in any given area or locality, 

 save that of actual observation ; and even this often varies, 

 from some wholly unknown cause, in ditfcrent vcars. Elxam- 

 ples are continually occurring of individual species which oc- 

 cur as " resident and breeds " in one limited locality which do 

 not so occur again within a radius of hundreds of miles in any 

 direction. Further, — in some states a species may be a com- 

 mon, even abundant, summer resident throughout the state, 

 yet, in isolated places or towns {)erhaps, in the very midst of 

 this abundance, the most strict search will often fail to detect 

 a single individual of that species ; or they may be found only 

 as " very rare migrants." Were this true of a single state, 

 there might be some i-easonable answer to the (juestion. Why 

 is it? But it is equally true of every state or section of coun- 

 try in all North America. 



The question of the position of the Sylvicolidte among our 

 other North American birds, is one very easily disposed of as 

 being one merely of )iafiiral nffinity. That of " what birds 



