The Audubon Magazine. 



Vol. II. 



JUNE, i88S. 



No. 5. 



BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER. 



THE subject of our illustration this 

 month belongs to the important 

 group known to naturalists as Wood War- 

 blers, Sylvicolidce. This is with one excep- 

 tion the largest family of North American 

 birds, only the finch family, Fringillidce, 

 exceeding it in the number of its species. 

 The Wood Warblers are all small birds, 

 very few of them being over five inches m 

 length, and many of them much less. 

 Most of them are bright and beautiful 

 in color, blue and yellow, orange and black, 

 and white and chestnut, being oddly min- 

 gled in their plumage. The sexes are 

 usually unlike, the females being much 

 plainer colored than their mates. Besides 

 this, there are changes of color at different 

 seasons of the year, which may make the 

 bird of the autumn appear entirely different 

 from the same one in spring. Although 

 called Warblers, this is an entire misnomer 

 for most of the species, whose powers of 

 song are limited to rather feeble trillings, 

 which scarcely deserve to be called songs. 

 There are, however, notable exceptions to 

 this rule, such is the noisy yellow-breasted 

 chat, and some of the so-called water 

 thrushes or wagtail warblers, whose vocal 

 powers are of a very high order. 



It is unnecessary here to give the char- 

 acters which mark this family. Their small 

 size and their active habits of fluttering 

 about among the branches of trees make 

 them conspicuous objects, especially during 



the spring migrations, when they are to be 

 seen everywhere, and form one of the most 

 attractive features of our loveliest season. 



To give some idea of the habits and life 

 characteristics of this group of birds we 

 quote from Dr. Coues, who has happily 

 written of them. He says: "The Warblers 

 have we always with us, all in their own 

 good time; they come out of the South, 

 pass on, return, and are away again, their 

 appearance and withdrawal scarcely less 

 than a mystery; many stay with us all sum- 

 mer long, and some brave the winter in our 

 midst. Some of these slight creatures,, 

 guided by unerrring instinct, travel true to- 

 the meridian in the hours of darkness, slip- 

 ping past 'like a thief in the night,' stoop- 

 ing at daybreak from their lofty flight tO' 

 rest and recruit for the next stage of the 

 journey. Others pass more leisurely from 

 tree to tree, in a ceaseless tide of migration, 

 gleaning as they go; the hardier males, in 

 full song and plumage, lead the way for the 

 weaker females and the yearlings. With 

 tireless industry do the Warblers befriend 

 the human race; their unconscious zeal 

 plays due part in the nice adjustment of 

 Nature's forces, helping to bring about that 

 balance of vegetable and insect life without 

 which agriculture would be in vain. They 

 visit the orchard when the apple and pear, 

 the peach, plum, and cherry are in bloom, 

 seeming to revel carelessly amid the sweet- 

 scented and delicate-tinted blossoms, but. 



