112 THE BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER. 



No. 50. 



BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER. • 



A. O. U. No. 636. Mniotilta varia (Linn.). 



Synonym. — Bi^ack-and-whitb CrEEpER. 



Description. — Adult male : Black and white in streaks and stripes ; two 

 lustrous black stripes separated by broad median white stripe on head, and pro- 

 duced to cervix; superciliary stripe and under eyelid white; extreme chin and 

 malar stripes white; ear-coverts and throat black; exposed tips of primaries and 

 tertiaries and primary coverts dusky rather than black ; tips of median and greater 

 coverts broadly white; tail blackish with white or bluish white edgings; two 

 outer pairs of feathers blotched with white on the inner webs near tip; upper 

 tail-coverts black; belly white; remaining plumage black and white in streaks, 

 broadest on breast and sides, finest on sides of neck; bill and feet black. Adult 

 female : Similar to male, but throat white, and remaining under parts with 

 fewer streaks, and sides washed with brownish. Immature: Similar to female, 

 but with more streaks on under parts. Length 4.50-5.50 (114.3-139.7) ; wing 

 2.7s (69.6) ; tail 1.90 (48.3) ; bill .45 (11.4). 



Recognition Marks. — Medium Warbler size ; black and white in streaks and 

 stripes. 



Nest, on the ground, usually sheltered by stump, log, or projecting stone; 

 of leaves, bark-strips, and grasses, with a lining of fine rootlets and hairs. Eggs, 

 4 or 5, white or creamy white, speckled and spotted with chestnut or umber, chiefly 

 in a wreath about the larger end. Av. size, .67 x .55 (17. x 14.). 



General Range. — Eastern United States to the Plains, north to Fort Simp- 

 son ; south in winter through Central America and West Indies to Venezuela and 

 Colombia. Breeds from Virginia to southern Kansas northward, and winters 

 from Florida and the Gulf States southward. 



Range in Ohio. — Common during migrations. Breeds sparingly throughout 

 the state in wilder portions. 



ALTHO placed at the head of the family of Wood Warblers, this mod- 

 est bird comes more naturally into comparison with Creepers and Nuthatches. 

 "Claws were made before wings," he grumbles to himself, and while his more 

 gaily dressed kinsmen are flitting restlessly in and out among the tree-tops 

 he clings and creeps, or rather hops, along the bark of the trunk and the 

 larger branches. He lacks much, it is true, of being the methodical plodder 

 that the Brown Creeper is ; he covers a great deal more surface in a given 

 time and is content, it must be confessed, with a rather superficial examin- 

 ation of any given territory. Then again he secures variety, not merely 

 by tracing out the smaller limbs, but by moving in any direction, — up or 

 down or sidewise — or even by darting into the air now and then to capture 

 an insect which he has startled. Not infrequently he may be seen gleaning 

 from the bark of bushes and saplings near the ground, or again in the tops 



