M. VARIA I BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER. IO*J 



it has been found in Connecticut in early October. It is 

 oftenest seen in May and September, when the migra- 

 tion is in full action. The nest is usually placed on the 

 ground, built of leaves, grasses and moss, lined with 

 fine, soft vegetable substances, such as fern-down, and 

 sometimes hair. The eggs are laid the last week in 

 May or early in June, and a second set may be found 

 sometimes in July. They are 4 to 6 in number, measur- 

 ing 0.65 by 0.54, of a creamy-white ground-color, more 

 or less evenly sprinkled with reddish-brown dots, among 

 which are some larger markings of darker brown color, 

 chiefly about the greater end. Like all the family, 

 this Warbler is insectivorous, subsisting upon a variety 

 of small insects gleaned from the bark and foliage of 

 trees, somewhat in the manner of the Creeper (Cer- 

 thia). The habit of scrambling actively about the 

 trunks and larger branches of forest trees is more 

 conspicuous in this than in other species of Sylvico- 

 lidce, causing the bird to have been formerly classed 

 as a Certhia an error perpetuated in the vernacular 

 name of Black-and-white " Creeper " long after natu- 

 ralists had ascertained that the species belonged to the 

 Warbler group. It is a typical representative of the 

 family of American Warblers, or Sylvicolidce, upon 

 the consideration of which we have now entered ; one 

 comprising a large number of the most elegant and 

 agreeable birds of this country, whose featherings, 

 songs, and manners, almost endlessly varied, render 

 them never-failing objects of interest to every one who, 

 with a heart for "the life of the woods," seeks to in- 

 terpret the mysterious meaning there is in the lives of 

 these winged messengers. 



