THE PARULA WARBLER. 



( Compsothlypis americana.) 



Hither the busy birds shall flutter, 



With the light timber for their nests, 

 And, pausing from their labor, utter 



The morning sunshine in their breasts. 



— James Russell Ivowell. 



The Parula or Blue Yellow-backed 

 Warbler, as it is sometimes called, is one 

 of the smallest and daintiest representa- 

 tives of the family of wood warblers. 

 Like the other species of warblers it is 

 one of the last spring migrants to reach 

 its Northern summer home. Retiring 

 and unobtrusive in its habits, it is to be 

 admired for its "plain and modest beau- 

 ty." Though delicately colored, its plum- 

 age is not nearly so striking as that of 

 many of the other species of the family. 

 It enjoys the higher branches of its wood- 

 land retreat, and here it seeks its food. 

 Graceful in all its motions, it flits from 

 branch to branch ; hanging by its feet, 

 it peers under the leaves and along the 

 twigs. 



In the summer the Parula is a resident 

 of Eastern North America, but in the 

 winter it seeks the warmer climate of 

 Florida and southward. While migrat- 

 ing it is well distributed over its range, 

 and may frequently be seen flying from 

 shrub to shrub. Like the other warblers 

 its flights are short and most of the time 

 it is hidden by the foliage. The longer 

 flights are by night. The days are spent 

 in seeking insects, upon which it feeds 

 almost exclusively. This, the habit of all 

 the warblers, explains the Parula's sud- 

 den disappearance from a locality where 

 it may have been common for a single 

 day. 



Near the end of May it retires to the 

 swampy woodlands where the gray Span- 

 ish moss hangs pendant from the branch- 

 es and shrubs. Here the Parula makes 

 its nest, a globular or pencil home, us- 



ually in bunches of the festooned moss. 

 The four or five white eggs are marked 

 near the larger end with specks of light 

 brown and lilac. Its song is neither in- 

 teresting nor striking, but is peculiarly 

 in harmony with the voices of spring 

 and as Mr. Chapman says: "When the 

 cypresses are enveloped in a haze of 

 lace-like blossoms and the woods are 

 fragrant with the delicious odor of yel- 

 low jasmine, the dreamy softness of the 

 air is voiced by the Parula's drowsy 

 song." 



Neltje Blanchan has most charmingly 

 written about this dainty bird. She says : 

 "A number of such airy, tiny beauties 

 flitting about among the blossoms of the 

 shrubbery on a bright May morning and 

 swaying on the slenderest branches with 

 their inimitable grace, is a sight that 

 the memory should retain into old age. 

 They seem the very embodiment of life, 

 joy, beauty, grace; of everything lovely 

 'that birds by any possibility could be. 

 Apparently they are wafted about the 

 garden ; they fly with no more elTort 

 than a dainty lifting of the wings, as if 

 to catch the breeze that seems to lift 

 them as it might a bunch of thistledown. 

 They go through a great variety of 

 charming posturings as they hunt for 

 their food upon the blossoms and tender, 

 fresh twigs, now creeping like a nuthatch 

 along the bar4<: and peering into the crev- 

 ices, now gracefully swaying and bal- 

 ancing like a goldfinch upon a slender, 

 pendant stem. One little sprite pauses in 

 its hunt for insects to raise its pretty 

 head and trill a short and wiry song." 



