698 The Sparrow-like Birds 



Wren- or Tit-like birds, about six and a half inches in length, with the plumage 

 very lax as in the Tits, the colors being plain brownish above, the long, graduated 

 tail usually showing faint dark bars and cinnamon or buffy below, with the 

 throat and breast usually streaked with darker. Structurally they possess a 

 compressed, short, somewhat conical, unnotched bill, linear nostrils, well-defined 

 rictal bristles, and short, concave, and rounded wings in which there are ten 

 primaries. They have been included with both Wrens (Troglodytida) and Tits 

 (Parida), and while distinctly different from either they probably find their 

 closest relationship with the latter, especially the Bush-Tits (Psatiriparus). 



The Wren-Tits are rather shy birds, frequenting the dense chaparral and 

 tangled undergrowth, especially along mountain sides and foot-hills, into which 

 they disappear on the slightest indication of danger. While flitting about and 

 seeking their food the long tail is usually held up after the manner of Wrens, 

 and as they fly their tails tilt up and down. When they scold, as they frequently 

 do, the notes are loud and decidedly Wren-like; but one of the most striking 

 things about them is their song, this according to Mr. Chapman being "wooden 

 and unmusical, beginning deliberately and ending in a roll, chick, chick, chick, 

 chick-chick-chick-chick-chick-chick'''' ; but Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey, who has 

 had opportunity of studying them in the field, speaks of the "clear, ringing 

 voice running down the scale, the bell-like tones now coming from the chaparral 

 of the valley, now from the boulder-strewn hillsides above." Although there 

 are a number of variations, the commoner song has nine notes, the last five 

 running down the scale, whence the bird is often called the Scale-bird. The 

 nest, a compact structure of twigs, straws, strips of bark, feathers, etc., is placed 

 in a bush in a dense thicket and usually between one and four feet from the 

 ground. The three to five eggs are greenish blue and unspotted. 



THE OLD WORLD WARBLERS 



(Family Sylviida) 



It is necessary to designate the members of this group as the True or Old 

 World Warblers to distinguish them sharply from the American or Wood War- 

 blers (MniotiltidcB) , with which they have little or no intimate relationship, being 

 " ten-primaried " instead of "nine-primaried," as are the latter. The family 

 Sylviida is a very large one, comprising some seventy-five genera and between 

 five and six hundred species, all being birds of small size, and, with few excep- 

 tions, of plain plumage. The sexes are alike in coloration, except in a few 

 genera, and even here the differences are slight, but curiously enough the young, 

 while having the same color pattern as the adults, are more highly colored. 

 They have a partial or complete spring moult, but it appears that the young 

 do not assume the full adult plumage until the second autumn. Structurally 

 they have a rather slender bill, both mandibles of which have the edges smooth 

 or sometimes the upper one possesses a single simple notch, while the tarsus 



