THE KENTUCKY WARBLER. 



ETWEEN sixty and seventy 

 warblers are described by 

 Davie in his "Nests and 

 Eggs of North American 

 Birds," and the Kentucky 

 Warbler is recognized as one of the 

 most beautiful of the number, in its 

 manners almost the counterpart of the 

 Golden Crowned Thrush (soon to 

 delight the eyes of the readers of 

 BIRDS), though it is altogether a 

 more conspicuous bird, both on 

 account of its brilliant plumage and 

 greater activity, the males being, 

 during the season of nesting, very 

 pugnacious, continually chasing one 

 another about the woods. It lives 

 near the ground, making its artfully 

 concealed nest among the low herbage 

 and feeding in the undergrowth, the 

 male singing from some old log or 

 low bush, his song recalling that of 

 the Cardinal, though much weaker. 



The ordinary note is a soft 

 schip, somewhat like the common 

 call of the Pewee. Considering its 

 great abundance, says an observer, the 

 nest of this charmer is very difficult 

 to find; the female, he thought, must 

 slyly leave the nest at the approach of 

 an intruder, running beneath the 

 herbage until a considerable distance 

 from the nest, when, joined by her 

 mate, the pair by their evident anxiety 

 mislead the stranger as to its location. 

 It has been declared that no group 

 of birds better deserves the epithet 

 "pretty "than the Warblers. Tanagers 

 are splendid, Humming Birds reful- 

 gent, others brilliant, gaudy, or mag- 

 nificent, but Warblers alone are pretty. 

 The Warblers are migratory birds, 

 the majority of them passing rapidly 

 across the United States in spring on 

 the way to their northern nesting 



grounds, and in autumn to their winter 

 residence within the tropics. When 

 the apple trees bloom they revel 

 among the flowers, vicing in activity 

 and numbers with the bees ; "now 

 probing the recesses of a blossom for 

 an insect, then darting to another, 

 where, poised daintily upon a slender 

 twig, or suspended from it, they 

 explore hastily but carefully for 

 another morsel. Every movement is 

 the personification of nervous activity, 

 as if the time for their jonrney was 

 short ; as, indeed, appears to be the 

 case, for two or three days at most suf- 

 fice some species in a single locality." 

 We recently saw a letter from a 

 gentleman living at Lake Geneva, in 

 which he referred with enthusiasm to 

 BIRDS, because it had enabled him to 

 identify a bird which he had often 

 seen in the apple trees among the 

 blossoms, particularly the present 

 season, with which he was unac- 

 quainted by name. It was the Orchard 

 Oriole, and he was glad to have a 

 directory of nature which would enable 

 him to add to his knowledge and correct 

 errors of observation. The idea is a 

 capitol one,and the beautiful Kentucky 

 Warbler, unknown to many who see 

 it often, may be recognized in the 

 same way by residents of southern 

 Indiana and Illinois, Kansas, some 

 localities in Ohio, particularly in the 

 southwestern portion, in parts of New 

 York and New Jersey, in the District 

 of Columbia, and in North Carolina. 

 It has not heretofore been possible, 

 even with the best painted specimens 

 of birds in the hand, to satisfactorily 

 identify the pretty creatures, but with 

 BIRDS as a companion, which may 

 readily be consulted, the student can- 

 not be led into error. 



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