THE WOOD WARBLER. 371 



warbler. The ground colour is white, the markings reddish- 

 purple. The young are easily distinguished by their resem- 

 blance in tint to the old birds. 



The song of the wood warbler continues during the nesting 

 time, and ceases only with the moult, at which time it is 

 partially continued by the earlier broods of the young birds. 

 During the nesting time it is often delivered during flight, 

 while the bird is rising from its perch and returning again ; 

 but it is easily distinguished from that of other birds which 

 have a similar habit in singing. 



But though this warbler does not nestle in trees, it is 

 always in their vicinity; they form its pasture, and it gives 

 the preference to such as are lofty. But it is a leaf bird, and 

 not a branch bird (in which again it is altogether different 

 from the wrens); and its food consists of the caterpillars 

 which curl, roll, and otherwise injure, the leaves of deciduous 

 trees, and the flies and moths by which these are deposited in 

 the egg state, and into which they are changed. Its short 

 flights from and to the tree are no doubt made for the pur- 

 pose of discovering the retreats of those caterpillars ; and its 

 habit of thus beating round the foliage of the tree agrees 

 with its structure as being a flying and not a leaping bird, as 

 all birds are which hunt among the stems and branches. 



Though this bird is not, perhaps, quite so abundant, or 

 resident so far to the north, as the lesser petty-chaps, and 

 does not come so early in the spring, or tarry so late in the 

 autumn, it is in all probability far more plentiful than is 

 generally supposed ; but it is apt to be overlooked, as there 

 is nothing very striking about it, as it does not come so close 

 to houses as many other birds, and as it is hidden even from 

 those that walk under the thick trees in the foliage of which 

 it is hunting. It is one of the most active preservers of the 

 foliage of trees ; and as such it claims the protection of all 



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