344 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



May until August, although June is the favorite nesting time. 

 Charles R. Kej^es describes a nest placed in a small l>ush situated 

 within eight feet of a railroad track over which cars were passing 

 continually, and notwithstanding the violent swaying of the bush 

 caused by the strong current of air created by each rapidly mov- 

 ing train, the 3'oung birds were successfull}^ reared (" The Iowa 

 Greenlets," O. & O., xii, p. 44). 



The species was described and named by John James Audubon 

 after the veteran taxidermist, J. G. Bell, who accompanied him on 

 his Missouri River expedition in 1843. Dr. Paul Bartsch gives 

 an Iowa reference to the species as being found in Audubon's 

 great work on " The Birds of North America," 1844, p. 333. 



Family MNIOTILTID.'E. Wood Warblers. 



The Wood Warblers are a very large family of strictly Ameri- 

 can birds. They are generally brightly colored, at least the 

 males, and are almost wholly insectivorous. All of the species 

 are migratory in Iowa, mostly passing north to breed, and only a 

 few species nest in the state. 



"The name AVarbler' comes from their resemblance to the 

 Warblers of Europe {Sylviidcc) and not from any distinguished 

 musical quality of their own" (Jordan, "Manual of the Verte- 

 brates," p. 297). 



The Warblers usually appear in the spring just as the leaf buds 

 are bursting on the trees, and their great numbers, and the assi- 

 duity with which the}^ search out the insect life which appears 

 in the foliage at this time, render them particularly useful and 

 valuable allies in forest protection. The majority of the species 

 are unknown to most people, as they are with us for only a few 

 days in the spring and fall, and generally keep to the tree-tops. 



Genus Mniotilta Vieillot. 



288. (636).- Mniotilta varia (Linn.). Black and White Warbler. 

 The Black and White Warbler is a Warbler with the habits 

 of a Creeper or Nuthatch, generally seen nervously climbing 

 over the trunks and larger branches of trees, but it also gleans 

 among the smaller twigs and foliage. It is generally distributed 

 over Iowa as a tolerably- common migrant from the middle of 

 April until the latter part of May and from about August 20 to 



