WARBLERS. 107 



Warblers, from dawn until evening, in searching among the 

 branches of low bushes and saplings for the small caterpil- 

 lars and insects upon which they feed. They do not usually 

 make any demonstrations if their nest is examined, but 

 remain quietly in the neighborhood of it until they can safely 

 return. They do not attempt to lead off the intruder by 

 feigning lameness, as many other Warblers do, especially 

 those who habitually build their nests on or very near the 

 ground. 



d. Their song cannot .fail to attract the attention of every 

 person who hears it, and who takes an interest in birds. Its 

 notes, resembling the syllables zee-zee-zee-zee-zee-zee-zee, are ut- 

 tered in a very peculiar tone, and each note is a little higher 

 and louder than the preceding. The birds, on uttering it, 

 frequently depress their tail. The ordinary note of the often 

 silent Prairie Warblers is a chirr. 



C. PENNSYLVANICA. Chestnut-sided Warbler. In 

 southern New England, a common summer resident.* 



a. About 5 1 inches long. Back, light ashy yellow, black- 

 streaked. Under parts, white. Wing-bars the same, gen- 

 erally forming one patch. Crown, yellow, bordered by white. 

 Lore, continuously with a line through the eye and one down 

 to a chestnut red patch on the side of the breast, black. 



b. The nest is usually coarser than that of the Yellowbird 

 (-4), and contains fewer woolly materials. It is often com- 

 posed outwardly of narrow strips of thin bark or dried grasses, 

 mixed with a few bits of plant-down, and inwardly of very 

 fine straw, which is lined with hairs. Such is the description 

 of two nests before me. The nests are commonly placed from 

 two to eight feet above the ground in a low bush, shrub, or 

 sapling, and are either built in a fork or otherwise secured 



* If a census could be made of the Warbler is a bird of very general 



Warbler population of New England at distribution. It does not, however, 



the height of the breeding season, it is breed in pine woods nor in cultivated 



probable that the individuals of this grounds near houses or towns, and it 



species would be found to outnumber is somewhat less numerous in north- 



those of any other excepting, possibly, era than in southern New England, 



the Oven-bird, for the Chestnut-sided W- B. 



