NASHVILLE WARBLER 323 



member of the family with no marks on wings or 

 tail and a general uniformity of coloring, it seems 

 as if there were nothing to identify him by, and 

 a mental state of helpless perplexity results. But 

 many matters in life are best treated by elimina- 

 tion, and the plain Warblers are not so confusing 

 when one realizes that they are a handful to be 

 studied apart, and free from the mass of their 

 confusingly marked, streaked, and spotted breth- 

 ren. Those we can be rid of, which is certainly 

 something to be thankful for. Looked at by 

 himself, the Nashville is not so bad. To begin 

 with, his head is bluish gray, which is a mercy, 

 for that is unusual in combination with the olive 

 and yellow of his body. Then he has a concealed 

 chestnut patch in this gray crown, if we can but 

 see it. Furthermore, he hunts close to the ground, 

 which at once distinguishes him from the little 

 wretches which hunt so high in the treetops it is 

 impossible to say what they wear on head or 

 heels. It is also something to know that his 

 ground is usually in " open woodland, young 

 second growth, or tree-bordered fields," and that 

 his song, " wee-see-wee-see, wit-a-wit-a-wit" sug- 

 gests in its first half the song of the Black and 

 White Creeper, and in the last half that of the 

 Chipping Sparrow. When narrowed down in 

 this way, he ought to be easily identified, and 

 though he has no marks it is, after all, a satisfac- 

 tion to know that some Warblers are plain ! 



