AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 63 



PRAIRIE WARBLER. 



A. O. U. No. 673. (Dendroica discolor.) 



RANGE. 



Eastern United States, north to southern New.iEngland and Michi- 

 gan; breeds from Southern U. S- northwards, and migrates in winter to 

 Florida and the East Indies. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length, 4-5 in.; extent 6.5 in.; tail, 2 in. Upper^parts greenish yel- 

 low with a number of reddish brown spots oujthe middle of the back. 

 Below, bright yellow on the throat and breast and lightening and chang- 

 ing to greenish yellow on the flanks and belly. A-black line through 

 the eye and the sides of neck and flanks streaked with black. A yel- 

 low supercilliary stripe and two yellowish white wing bars. The fe- 

 male is paler, has but a trace of the black markings, and lacks the red- 

 dish brown spots on the back. 



NEST AND EGGS. 



The Prairie Warblers build one of the most substantial and artistic 

 nests of the whole family. It is very firmly attached in a crotch of a 

 small shrub. It is skillfully woven with vegetable fibres and fine 

 grasses and closely lined with hair. They nearly always nest in colo- 

 nies and twenty-five or thirty pairs may sometimes be found nesting on 

 a small plot of ground containing barely more than an acre. With 

 hardly an exception, high, dry land seems to be chosen for a location. 



They commonly lay four eggs but occasionally a set of five may be 

 found. The ground color is practically white having but a very slight 

 greenish tinge, and they are specked chiefly in the form of a wreath 

 around the larger end, with reddish brown. The sets are generally 

 completed about the latter part of May or early in June. Incubation 

 lasts about fifteen days and then the young are fed in the nest for 

 about two weeks more. The young are very bright and active and 

 have a way of keeping out of sight beneath the underbrush so that they 

 are little seen. In the fall both old and young join in with the other 

 members of the warbler family and migrate in their company. I think 

 that all that survive of a colony both old and young, return to the same 

 locality to nest each year and the bird town increases in population 

 gradually until for lack of room some of them are compelled to seek 

 new quarters. 



