﻿A Brief General Classification 

 Of the Songs of Eastern North American Wood Warblers 



By GERALD H. THAYER, Monadnock, N. H. 



(Those asterisked I know from descriptions only) 



I. Song rambling and desultory, without fixed form : One — Yellow- 

 breasted Chat. 



II. Song a comparatively short, more or less continuous strain, with definite 

 beginning and end : Forty-four — All but the Chat. 



I. Full-voiced Warblers: Twenty -eight — Prothonotary, Swainson's*, 

 Nashville, Orange- crowned* (?) , Yellow, Black -throated Blue, Yellow- 

 rump, Black-and-Yellow, Chestnut-side, Yellow-throated, Sycamore*, 

 Black-throated Green, Kirtland's* (?), Pine; Ovenbird, Northern Water- 

 thrush, Louisiana Water-thrush; Kentucky, Connecticut*, Mourning; 

 Maryland, Florida and Northern Yellow-throats; Yellow-breasted Chat; 

 Hooded, Wilson's, Canada; American Redstart. 



II. Weak-voiced, or ' thin' -voiced Warblers: Twelve — Black-and- 

 White, Bachman's*, Blue-winged (Brewster's* and Lawrence's*), Gol- 

 den-winged*, Parula and Northern Parula, Cape May, Bay-breast, Black- 

 poll, Blackburnian, Palm, Prairie. 



III. Warblers with voice between full and thin : Four — Worm -eating, 

 Tennessee, Cerulean (much though this Warbler's singing resembles the 

 Parula's, it is noticeably louder, sometimes at least), Yellow Palm. 



I. Full-voiced Warblers whose song-tones are smooth and clear: Twenty- 

 five — Prothonotary, Swainson's*, Nashville, Orange -crowned* (?), Yellow, 

 Yellow-rump, Black-and-Yellow, Chestnut-side, Yellow -throated, Syca- 

 more*, Pine; Ovenbird, Northern Water-thrush; Kentucky, Connecti- 

 cut*, Mourning; all three Yellow -throats; Chat; Hooded, Wilson's, 

 Canada; American Redstart (in part). 



II. Full-voiced Warblers whose song-tones have a pronounced ' beadiness' : 

 Three — Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, American Redstart 

 (in part). 



III. Weak-voiced {and intermediate) Warblers whose song-tones are smooth 

 and clear, or nearly so: Eight — Black-and -White,- Worm-eating, Cape 

 May, Bay-breast, Black-poll, Blackburnian, Palm, Yellow Palm. 



IV. Weak-voiced (and intermediate) Warblers whose song-tones have a 

 pronounced 'beadiness': Eight — Bachman's* (?), Blue- winged, Golden - 

 winged*, Tennessee (?), Parula and Northern Parula, Cerulean, Prairie. 



I. Warblers with perhaps only one main song : Twenty-one — Prothono- 

 tary (?), Swainson's* (?), Worm-eating, Bachman's* (?), Golden- 

 winged* (?), Orange -crowned* (?), Tennessee (?), Cerulean, Black-poll, 



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