MNIOTILTIDJi — THE AMERICAN WARBLERS. 153 



Hab. Eastern United States. Canada and New Brunswick ; west to Kansas and Minne- 

 sota, south only to Gulf States and Bahamas; breeds nearly throughout its range, and 

 winters chiefly south of 40°. 



"Sp. Char. Spring male. Upper psirts nearly uniform and clear olive-green, the feath- 

 ers of the crown with rather darker shafts. Under part.s generally, except in the middlo 

 of the belly behind, and under tail-coverts (which are white), bright gamboge yellow, with 

 obsolete streaks of dusky on the sides of the breast and body. Sides of head and neck 

 olive-green Uke the back, with a broad superciliary stripe; the eyelids and a spot beneath 

 the eye very obscurely yellow; wings and tail brown; the feathers edged with dirty 

 white, and two bands of the same across the eovert.s. Inner web of the first tail-feather 

 with nearly the terminal half, of the second with nearly the terminal third, dull incon- 

 spicuous white. Length. 5.50; wing. 3.00; tail.2.40. (l.SSIi.) 



"Spring lemale. Similar, but more grayish above, and almost grayish white, with a 

 tinge of yellow beneath, instead of bright yellow. Young. Umber-brown above, and 

 dingy pale ashy beneath, with a sUght yellowish tinge on the abdomen. Wing and tail 

 much as In the autumnal adult. 



"Autumnal males are much like spring individuals, but the yellow 

 beneath is softer and somewhat richer, and the ohve above over- 

 laid with a reddish umber tint." {Hist. N. A^n. B.) 



So far as the western portion of its habitat is concerned, the 

 name of Pine Creeping Warbler, as apphed to this species is de- 

 cidedly a misnomer; for in the Mississippi Valley, where its breed- 

 ing range is probably pretty general, conifers of any species are 

 comparatively rare and exceedingly local. It has been found feeding 

 its young in the heavy timber of the Wabash bottomlands, near 

 Mount Carmel, but the writer has not been able to discover its 

 nest. It is apparently not uncommon there, though not so often 

 observed as birds of more conspicuous plumage or louder song. In 

 the East its nest is said to be "placed at a considerable height, 

 sometimes fifty feet or more from the ground, and is usually fast- 

 ened to the twigs of a small branch."* The song of the Pine 

 Creeping Warbler is a low trill, somewhat hke that of the Chipping 

 Sparrow or Worm-eating Warbler. 



Although when in the trees the movements of this species recall 

 those of a Mnioiilta, or, rather, the -D. dominica, when on the ground 

 it progresses by a graceful ghding walk, much after the manner of 

 the Red-poll Warbler (D. paliiiaruin). 



• Hist. N. Am. B. i,pp. 2G9.270. 



