133 THE WESTERN PARULA WARBLER. 



since Kirtland's time, leaving a hiatus between the two subspecies, which at 

 present consists of northern Ohio and southern Ontario. If closer atten- 

 tion discovers breeding birds in the northern part of the state, they will 

 probably prove to be avant couriers of the southwestern bird, C.'a. ramalinae. 



No. 59. 



WESTERN PARULA WARBLER. 



A. O. U. No. 648a, part. Compsothlypis americana ramalinae Ridgway. 



Description. — Similar in coloration to C. a. usncac, but averaging somewhat 

 smaller. Length of male 4.40 (in. 7) ; wing 2.26 (57.5) ; tail 1.61 (40.9) ; bill 

 •39 (9-9) • Recently elaborated by Ridgway but status and distribution not yet 

 clearly defined. 



General Range. — Locally distributed throughout the Mississippi Valley and 

 its tributaries, west to the Plains, north to Canada, and east to western Ohio and 

 Michigan. 



Range in Ohio. — Believed to be the breeding bird; nowhere common but 

 generally distributed. 



DURING the spring migrations the Parula Warbler is the most restless 

 midget of all that motley host which throngs the tree-tops. One tries in vain 

 to catch him at rest, if but for the fraction of a second, that he may feast his 

 eyes upon those rare beauties. But no; the little body is swayed by a thousand 

 passions, and each movement must do duty for an hour. It is both moving- 

 time and mating-time, and to see him bustling about in such a mighty flurry 

 one guesses that Chaucer's lines must be true of him : 



"So bote he lovede that by nightertale 

 He sleep namore than doth the nightingale." 



Arrived, however, upon the summer camping ground and secure in his 

 mistress's affections, our hot lover becomes much more sedate. One observed 

 closely at McConnelsville in May, 1903, moved about with great deliberation, 

 stopping for several minutes at a time upon a given twig, where he sang at 

 frequent intervals. The song consisted of distinctly syllabized r notes, wind- 

 ing up with a squeak of an entirely different character, Zu cii z^t zti zuee tsip. 

 The whole was of a hair-like fineness, and had no great carrying power. 



During the same season in the wooded hills about Sugar Grove I saw 

 parents leading about full-grown young on the loth of June. In the overflow 



