]^2 NO.! I'll AMKKUAN lilKDS.- 



Jt is ^riici't'ul 1111(1 rapid in iiKivfiiiciit, iiiid is olli'ii s(i intent niuiu its hunt 

 us to lie uniiiiiKirul ut' tlic nciir ]iivs('iicii iif niiin. 



It is I'liiind cliii'tly in tliiekets, but tliis is iinibahly owinjj; to the I'liet that tluMv 

 its I'luid is |iriii('iiially li> hn olitaiiifd. It is ticcasionally seen in niore ojien 

 etiuntry, and has lieen i<ii(i\vii to breed in the iniiuediate vicinity of a (hvellinj,'. 



Wilson rejjjarded this liinl as a true Creeper, and objected to its beiiiji; 

 classeil as a Wariiler. He even denied to it the possession ot" any soii;^. In 

 this he was (piite mistaken. Though never loud, ]iroloiin('d, or ])o\vert'ul, tlui 

 song of this Warbler is very sweet and pleasing. It ln'gins to sing t'roiii its 

 first appearance in May, ami continues to repeat its brief reirain at intervals 

 almost until its departure in August and Sejiteniber. Xuttall speaks of it 

 as lieing at first a monotonous dittv, and as utteri'd in a stroiiy but shrill and 

 filing tone. These notes, he adds, as the season advances, become more mel- 

 low and warbling, and, though feeble, are jileasing, and are similar to those 

 of the Kedstart. Ihit this .statement does not do full Justice to the varied 

 and agreeable notes with which, in early spring, these liirds accompany their 

 lively hunt for food among the tops of the lorest trees. They are diver- 

 sified and sweet, and seem suggestive of a genial and hajipy nature. 



Tlie.se birds make their appearance in New Kngland early in May, and 

 remain there, among the thick wooils, until the middle of October, and in the 

 Southern States until the verge of winti'r. 



Their movements in search of food aic like tho.se of the Titmice, keeping 

 the feet together and moving in a sui'cession of short rapid hops uj) the 

 irunks of trt^es and along the limbs, passing again to the bottom by longer 

 flights than in the ascent. They make but short flights from tree to tree, 

 but are a])i)arently not incapable of more prohmged (uies. 



So far as I know, these birds always build their nests on the ground. Afr. 

 Xuttall found one in Iioxbury containing young about a week old. The nest 

 was on the ground, on the surface of a shelving rock, made of coarse strips 

 of the inner bark of the Ahirs nni(i(/r)isis externally, and internally of soft 

 decayed leaves and dry grasses, and lined with a thin layer of lilack hair. 

 The parents fcil their young in his jn'cseuce with allectionate attention, and 

 manifested no uneasiness, creeping, head downward, about the trunks of the 

 neighboring trees, carrying large smooth caterjiillars to their young. The 

 nests of this bird are strongly and com])actly built, externally of coarse .strips 

 of various kinds of bark, and lined within with hair and tine .stems of grasses. 

 In several instances I have known them to be roofed over at the top, in the 

 manner of the (iohlen-crowned Thrush. They measure about three inches 

 in their external diameter, and are e(|Ually deej). 



The nests ajipear to be a favorite reci']itack' for the parasitic eggs of the 

 Cow-Ihinting. Mr. Hubert L'idgway obtained a nest at Mt. Cannel, 111., 

 in which wen; four eggs of tli(> MulothvuH and only two of the parent birds ; 

 and ^Ir. T. M. Trijijie, of Orange, N. V., also found a nest of this Creeper 

 in which were but three of its own and five of the parasite. 



