ED THE BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER. 
No. 50. 
BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER. 
Y A. O. U. No. 636. Mniotilta varia (Linn.). 
Synonym.— BLACK-AND-WHITE CREEPER. 
Description.—Adult male: Black and white in streaks and stripes; two 
lustrous black stripes separated by broad median white stripe on head, and pro- 
duced to cervix; superciliary stripe and under eyelid white; extreme chin and 
malar stripes white; ear-coverts and throat black; exposed tips of primaries and 
tertiaries and primary coverts dusky rather than black; tips of median and greater 
coverts broadly white; tail blackish with white or bluish white edgings; two 
outer pairs of feathers blotched with white on the inner webs near tip; upper 
tail-coverts black; belly white; remaining plumage black and white in streaks, 
broadest on breast and sides, finest on sides of neck; bill and feet black. Adult 
female: Similar to male, but throat white, and remaining under parts with 
fewer streaks, and sides washed with brownish. Jimmature: Similar to female, 
but with more streaks on under parts. Length 4.50-5.50 (114.3-139.7) ; wing 
2.75 (69.6) ; tail 1.90 (48.3) ; bill .45 (11.4). 
Recognition Marks.—Medium Warbler size; black and white in streaks and 
stripes. 
Nest, on the ground, usually sheltered by stump, log, or projecting stone; 
of leaves, bark-strips, and grasses, with a lining of fine rootlets and hairs. Eggs, 
4 or 5, white or creamy white, speckled and spotted with chestnut or umber, chiefly 
in a wreath about the larger end. Av. size, .67 x .55 (17. X 14.). 
General Range.—FE astern United States to the Plains, north to Fort Simp- 
son; south in winter through Central America and West Indies to Venezuela and 
Colombia. Breeds from Virginia to southern Kansas northward, and winters 
from Florida and the Gulf States southward. 
Range in Ohio.—Common during migrations. Breeds sparingly throughout 
the state in wilder portions. 
ALTHO placed at the head of the family of Wood Warblers, this mod- 
est bird comes more naturally into comparison with Creepers and Nuthatches. 
“Claws were made before wings,” he grumbles to himself, and while his more 
gaily dressed kinsmen are flitting restlessly in and out among the tree-tops 
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, it must be confessed, with a rather superficial examin- 
ation 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 which he has startled. Not infrequently he may be seen gleaning 
from the bark of bushes and saplings near the ground, or again in the tops 
