Xx 
THE WARBLER FAMILY 
(Mniotiltide) * 
THE gayest, the liveliest, and almost the small- 
est of our birds are the warblers. Some of 
_ them are not over five inches long from the tip 
of the beak to the end of the tail. Almost all 
wear bright colors, and the pair are never alike, 
while the youngsters are different from both. 
But few of them warble. Then why are they 
named so? Well, I have n’t found out; but we 
must call them warblers because that is their 
name in the books. Most of them have funny 
little songs of a few notes, which they jerk out 
every minute as they scramble about on the trees. 
We have seventy species of these little birds 
in the United States, and every one is working 
as hard as he can from morning till night, for our 
benefit. For every one eats insects, and enor- 
mous numbers of them. Some scramble over 
trees and pick them out from bud and blossom 
1 See Appendix, 8. 
