244 Bird - Lore 



Of all of our bird families, none is more distinctively North American 

 than that of the Wood Warblers. There are one hundred or more species of 

 this exquisite group, with a large number of which we may become famiUar, 

 if we set to work to study their habits, plumage, nesting-sites and songs 

 systematically. The Yellow Warbler or "Summer Yellow-bird" is probably 

 as generally known as the Redstart, and even more widely distributed, but 

 who that has ever watched the tiny flaming, "flycatching" Redstart can mis- 

 take its movements or plumage, unless, indeed, the female bewilders the eye 

 and befogs the mind by her different but hardly less conspicuous colors and 

 rapid actions! British Columbia, central Mackenzie, southern Keewatin and 

 Quebec, with Newfoundland on the extreme east, mark the northern limits 

 of the Redstart. It rarely breeds below the latitude of 35° in southeastern 

 United States, while, in the west, a line drawn from Arkansas, central Okla- 

 homa, Colorado, northern Utah and Washington would mark roughly its 

 southern limits. Insectivorous, like all of this family, the Redstart migrates in 

 winter to the West Indies, and from the latitude of Puebla, Mexico, to Ecuador 

 and British Guiana. 



The Pipit and Dipper are excluded from our list of thirty representative 

 species, together with the Wren-tits, because they are either very restricted 

 in distribution or not commonly known. The Pipit, or "Titlark," is mostly a 

 migrant in the United States, but winters in some parts of temperate latitudes, 

 as well as in Mexico and Central America. It breeds in subarctic regions and 

 high up in the Rocky Mountains. 



The Dipper, or "Water Ouzel," is a resident species in the mountains of 

 the West, a rarely attractive acquaintance to make, for those who are so 

 fortunate as to discover its haunts. 



The Wren-tit is a Pacific-coast species, its four subspecies extending 

 from Oregon to the northern part of Lower California, and east only so far 

 as the interior of California proper. 



Until recently, the Thrashers, Catbirds and Mockingbirds were placed 

 in the same family with the Wrens, but, though closely related, they clearly 

 belong to a separate family. The songs, habits and distribution of this group 

 are all interesting. Although the Mockingbird is the most famous species of 

 the family, the Brown Thrasher and its kind are more widely known. This 

 long-tailed, long-billed "Brown Thrush" inhabits all of America east of the 

 Rocky Mountains, from Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and southern Alberta 

 in the west to southern Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and northern Maine in 

 the east. In winter, it shifts down to the Gulf Coast, occasionally straying 

 to Arizona and Europe. 



Of the one hundred and fifty species of Wrens, scarcely a dozen are known 

 outside of America. The Wrens are small, mouselike creatures of dull plumage, 

 exceptionally pleasing by reason of their rapid, bubbling songs, and 

 difficult to watch as they play at hide and seek around stumps, old fences. 



