THE WOOD WARBLERS 



1681 



of the bark for their minute insect food, taking short nervous flights from one 

 bough to another, twitching their wings as they alight, and always too busy to pay 

 attention to what may be going on around them." The rubycrest builds a tiny nest 

 consisting of a mass of hair and feathers mixed with moss and some short bits of 

 staw; commonly breeding in the heavy pine and spruce forests on the mountains of 

 Colorado and also in Arizona. It was of the rubycrest that Audubon himself wrote: 

 " When I tell you that its song is fully as sonorous as that of the canary bird, and 

 much richer, I do not come up to the truth, for it is not only as powerful and clear, 

 but much more varied and pleasing." The male has a rich scarlet crest; the upper 

 parts are greenish olive, and the wings and tail dusky; the under parts being yel- 

 lowish white. 



{ 



BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER. 

 (Two-thirds natural size.) 



THE WOOD WARBLERS 

 Family MNIOTILTID^, 



The American family of birds known as wood warblers may be conveniently 

 mentioned here, not only on account of their popular name, which causes them to be 

 associated with the warblers of the Old World, but also from the circumstance that 

 they are probably more or less closely related to the Gzrebidtz, among which they are 

 placed by Brehm. It would be useless to attempt to define the whole family, or to 

 mention the numerous genera; and we consequently select for illustration the black- 

 throated green warbler (Dendr<zca virens) as a well-known example of a large and 

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