THE MOURNING WARBLER. 



( Geothlypis Philadelphia.} 



BASKETT, in his valuable "Story 

 of the Birds," says that the warb 

 ler forms feed variously, but 

 they use little vegetable matter. 

 Some have ground-haunting, and even 

 swamp-haunting habits; others have 

 fringed tongues hinting of juices and 

 nectars, while tree-trunk exploring, as 

 in creepers, nuthatches, titmice, etc., 

 also prevails. They have been de 

 scribed as at once the most fascinating 

 and the most exasperating of birds. In 

 the spring they come with a rush and 

 although the woods may be full of 

 them, only a faint lisp from the tree 

 tops gives note of their presence, and 

 unless you are a very good observer you 

 will not know they are about at all. If 

 you listen to other birds, instead of res 

 olutely devoting yourself to warblers, 

 you will lose the opportunity of the 

 sight of a diminutive bird disappearing 

 in a tree top. Some of the warblers 

 dash about among the leaves on the 

 ground hunting for gnats, others hunt 

 over the branches of the trees, though 

 some of them hop gaily on the ground, 

 while others walk sedately, bobbing 

 their heads or tilting their tails. The 

 majority of the tribe fly northward to 

 nest in pine forests. A few, however, 

 remain and build in our parks, gardens 

 and shrubbery. They are all insect- 

 eaters, destroying ants, flies, caterpillars, 

 larvae, plant lice, canker-worms, and 

 May flies. They are therefore of great 

 value in the protection of vegetation. 



The mourning warbler, whose com 

 mon name is black-throated ground 

 warbler, has its habitat in eastern North 

 America, breeding from northern 

 United States- northward; more rare in 

 the Atlantic states. It winters in south 

 eastern Mexico, and Costa Rica, and 

 thence south to Colombia. During the 

 spring migration this bird is very com-' 

 mon. Early in May, 1881, they were 

 found in abundance near wheat lands in 

 Indiana, most of them being observed 

 about brush piles in a clearing, and 

 along fences in the immediate vicinity. 

 In the early part of June, 1871, a pair 

 were seen in a thicket along the border 

 of Fox Prairie, in Richland Co., Illi 

 nois, and it was presumed at the time 

 that they were breeding there, but they 

 may have been merely late migrants. 

 It is known to breed in mountainous 

 portions of Pennsylvania, New England, 

 New York, Michigan, Minnesota, and 

 eastern Nebraska, northward. It has 

 been found nesting in Illinois south of 

 latitude 39. Its nest is built on or near 

 the ground in woods. One discovered 

 by Burroughs in the state of New York 

 was built in ferns about a foot from the 

 ground, on the edge of a hemlock wood. 

 It contained three eggs. The nests are 

 usually composed of fine strips of bark 

 and other fibrous material, lined with 

 fine hair. The eggs are white, with a 

 sprinkling of reddish dots near the 

 larger ends. 



The feeling that all life is one life 

 slumbers in the child's soul. Only very 

 gradually, however, can this slumber 

 ing feeling be transfigured into a wak 

 ing consciousness. Slowly, through a 

 sympathetic study of nature and of 

 human life, through a growing sense of 

 the soul and meaning of all natural 



facts and of all human relationships, 

 and through recreating in various forms 

 that external world which is but the 

 objective expression of his own inmost 

 being, the individual attains to a con 

 sciousness and unity of life and to a 

 vision of the Eternal Fountain of Life. 

 The Nest. 



35 



