KENTUCKY WARBLER 



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"The call-note is a low-pitched 'chuck,' with some of the queru- 

 lous quality of a Flycatcher's note ; in fact it considerably resembles the 

 note of the Phoebe. The song is much like that of the Carolina Wren, 

 but less lively and ringing : ter-wheeter-wheeter-wheeter-wheeter- 

 wheeter, with falling inflection. I have never heard it in fall." 

 (Allison, MS.) 



"The song is a loud, clear and sweetly whistled peer-ry, repeated 

 rapidly four or five times. Often, though less frequently, a che che che 

 peer-ry peer-ry peer-ry. When first heard it is suggestive of the song 

 of the Cardinal or Carolina Wren. During the nesting season it is an 

 incessant singer from the lower branches of the sapling in which it is 

 constantly moving or as often from the ground where it is at its best, 

 walking about with an air and dignity not often attained by small 

 birds. The song continues from arrival until June 27-June 23, and one 

 was heard August 7, (1902). Most persistent the first four weeks, 

 however, when near its haunts, one is seldom out of hearing of one 

 or more singers. A flight song is sometimes delivered about dusk 

 during the height of the breeding period. It is indescribable. The 

 alarm note is a metallic chip, check, or chuck, more or less rapidly 

 repeated, and to a critical ear easily recognizable. The bird appears 

 to be free from that ever present nervousness of some of our Wood 

 Warblers, exhibiting perfect self possession on almost all occasions. 

 In May 1896, I heard several birds, possibly transients, sing Too-dle 

 too-dle too-dle too-dle (erroneously transposed with the breeding song 

 in Warbler Songs, Wilson Bulletin p. 47). On this occasion the birds 

 were not in full song on arrival." (Burns, MS.) 



Xesting Site. On the ground usually at the foot of a bush or 

 among plants, sometimes in bushes or on low sweeping limbs within 

 a few inches of the ground. 



"The nest is often placed in the most unexpected places : It may 

 be on top of the ground at the foot of a beech, spice-bush, dog-wood, 

 sweet birch, or black haw sprout; under a fallen bough, or perhaps 

 just off the wet earth between the ground forks of a bunch of spice- 

 wood, winter fern, Spanish needles or other weeds; or less frequently, 

 in the midst of a patch of wild sarsaparilla, mandrake or other annuals, 

 with nothing to turn aside the crushing foot of man or beast. It is 

 usually well concealed by the surrounding vegetation while in a com- 

 paratively open spot, and if not directly in an abandoned cartroad, 

 not far from some woodland footpath, public road, or the edge of the 

 woods." (Burns, MS.) 



