FOOD OF WKST VIRGINIA BIRDS Cl 



CHAPTER X. 

 THE WARBLERS. 



Thirty-six Species. 



Thirty-six species of Warblers have been recorded from West Vir- 

 ginia. \vuh a few exceptions these are all birds of the forest. The 

 Yellow \Varbler is common in orchard and shade trees, the Yellow- 

 breasted Chat is founa out in old fields, the Maryland Yellow-throat is to 

 be seen in grassy places and along rivers and smaller streams, especially 

 loving a swampy region, the Golden-winged Warbler delights in a field 

 of sassafras and blackberry briers, and a very few others resort to 

 places where they may be easily seen, but most of these small and 

 beautifully-colored birds find their favorite haunts in the woods and 

 many of them keep provokingly high up in the tops of the tallest forest 

 trees. On this account few persons know of the presence, beauty and 

 usefulness of this large family of birds. Only one, the Myrtle or Yellow- 

 rumped Warbler, is to be found here in the winter, and that very rarely. 

 Many remain here during the nesting season and the others are migrants, 

 passing us in the spring and fall. Practically all are useful species. Just 

 at the time when our apple and other fruit trees are in bloom, and for 

 a few weeks following, almost innumerable hosts of these small birds 

 feed among our orchard and forest trees. Because of the long migration 

 flights these birds have just finished or are in process of making, they 

 are very hungry. Their food consists almost entirely of small insects, 

 their eggs, larvae and pupae. Coming as they do when many of the 

 harmful caterpillars are just emerging from the egg and many other 

 species of insects aie beginning their spring work of devastation 

 among the forest and fruit trees, they are exceedingly useful. The 

 Warblers are so small that they can easily go to the extremities of 

 the smallest twigs and find the tiny insects among the buds, small leaves 

 and flowers. Though their food is made up of very small arboreal in- 

 sects, for the most part, they are none the less useful. Some of the 

 smallest insects aie most harmful, and these the Warblers destroy by 

 myriads. 



Systematic Work. 



Concerning the feeding habits of the Warblers Prof. Forbush has said, 

 "In this family we find birds that assume the care of the trees from 

 the ground to the topmost twig. Some walk daintily along the ground, 

 searching among the shrubbery and fallen leaves; others cling close to 

 the bark, and search its every crevice for those insignificant insects 

 which collectively form the greatest pests of forest and orchard; others 

 mount into the tree, skip from branch to branch, and peer about among the 

 leaves or search the opening buds of the lower branches; others habitu- 

 ally ascend to the tree tops; while still others are in almost constant 

 pursuit of the winged insects that dart about among the branches." The 

 work these birds do in policing the trees is surely systematic. By 



