*' List of the Birds ot Wayne county, 

 Ohio." There are other instances of its 

 rarity or absence from restricted locali- 

 ties. Its range extends from the Atlan- 

 tic ocean west to eastern Nebraska, and 

 north into Labrador and the fur coun- 

 tries, occasionally wandering even to 

 Greenland. It winters in the tropics 

 south of the United States. 



In the northward migration it reaches 

 Texas about the third week in April 

 and Manitoba near the end of the first 

 week in May, thus passing completely 

 across the country in about three 

 weeks. A careful computation proves 

 that the average rate at which this war- 

 bler traveled across the country, in the 

 spring of 1885, was nearly forty miles a 

 day. A single year, however, might 

 show a considerable departure from the 

 normal rate of migration. This in- 

 stance is given to show any who may 

 not be familiar with the phenomena of 

 bird migration that small birds, at least, 

 do not perform their whole migration 

 in a single flight, but rest a good deal 

 by the way. 



The migrating Nashville warblers, in 

 my experience, prefer the outskirts of 

 the larger woods, but may be found 

 anywhere in the smaller woods, pre- 

 ferring the middle branches, rarely 

 ascending to the tree-tops, not seldom 

 gleaning near the ground in the under- 

 brush, or even among the leaves on the 

 ground. They are by no means con- 

 fined to the woods, but glean as boldly 

 and sing as cheerfully among the fruit 

 and shade trees in town, but they are 

 more numerous in the woods. 



The song has been compared to that 

 of the chestnut-sided warbler and the 

 chipping sparrow combined. To my 

 ear the Nashville warbler's song is 

 enough unlike the song of any other 

 bird to be easily recognized after a sin- 

 gle hearing. Rev. J. H. Langille's ren- 

 dering: " A> isee, ke tsee, ke tsee, 

 chip ee, chip ee, chip ee, chip, is a 

 close approximation, but seems some- 

 what lacking in the true expression of 

 the first part of the song. My note 

 book renders it thus: '' K tsip, k tsip, 

 k tsip, k tsip, chip ee, chip ee, chip ee, 

 chip." The first part of the song is thus 



halting, with a considerable pause be- 

 tween the phrases, while the last part 

 is uttered more rapidly and with little 

 effort. This song, issuing from the 

 trees in every direction, is always 

 closely associated in the writer's mind 

 with the early morning hours, the drip- 

 ping trees and the sweet incense of the 

 flower-decked woods and bursting buds. 



While feeding, these warblers often 

 gather into groups of a dozen or twenty 

 individuals, and may be associated with 

 other species, thus forming a consider- 

 • able company. The warbler student is 

 familiar with the waves of warblers and 

 other small birds which range through 

 the woods, now appearing in a bewil- 

 dering flutter of a hundred wings, now 

 disappearing in their eager quest for a 

 lunch of insects. 



The breeding-range of this warbler 

 extends as far south as Connecticut in 

 the East, and Michigan and Minnesota, 

 if not northern Iowa in the West, and 

 north to the limit of its range. In com- 

 mon with the other members of this 

 genus, the Nashville warbler nests on 

 the ground, usually in a spot well pro- 

 tected by dried grasses and other litter 

 of the previous year's growth, often in 

 a tangle of shrubs, ferns and bushes. 

 The nest is sometimes sunk flush with 

 the surface, and is composed of grasses, 

 mosses, pine needles, strips of bark and 

 leaves, lined with finer material of the 

 same sort and with hair-like rootlets, 

 the composition varying with the local- 

 ity. The eggs are pure white or 

 creamy-white, marked with spots and 

 dots of reddish-brown and the usual 

 lilac shell-markings, which are grouped 

 more or less around the larger end. 

 They are four or five in number, and 

 average about .61 x .48 of an inch. 



The spring males may readily be rec- 

 ognized in the bush by their small size, 

 by the bright yellow underparts, by 

 their ashy heads and back, and by their 

 habit of feeding in the middle branches 

 of the trees down to the underbrush. 

 The concealed rufous spot on the crown, 

 from which the bird takes its scientific 

 specific name, can rarely be seen in the 

 live bird, no doubt chiefly because the 

 bird is perpetually above you. 



170 



