Conspicuously Yellow and Orange 



more variation than most warblers' music, has been translated 

 "Che-we-eo-tsip, tsip, che-we-eo," again interpreted by Mr. Chap- 

 man as "You must come to the woods, or you won't see me." 



Kentucky Warbler 



(Geothlypis formosa) Wood Warbler family 



Length — 5.5 inches. Nearly an inch shorter than the English 



sparrow. 

 Male — Upper parts olive-green; under parts yellow; a yellow 



line from the bill passes over and around the eye. Crown 



of head, patch below the eye, and line defining throat, black. 

 Female — Similar, but paler, and with grayish instead of black 



markings. 

 Range — United States eastward from the Rockies, and from Iowa 



and Connecticut to Central America, where it winters. 

 Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. 



No bird is common at the extreme limits of its range, and so 

 this warbler has a reputation for rarity among the New England 

 ornithologists that would surprise people in the middle South and 

 Southwest. After all that may be said in the books, a bird is 

 either common or rare to the individual who may or may not 

 have happened to become acquainted with it in any part of its 

 chosen territory. Plenty of people in Kentucky, where we might 

 judge from its name this bird is supposed to be most numerous, 

 have never seen or heard of it, while a student on the Hudson 

 River, within sight of New York, knows it intimately. It also 

 nests regularly in certain parts of the Connecticut Valley. " Who 

 is my neighbor ?" is often a question difficult indeed to answer 

 where birds are concerned. In the chapter, "Spring at the Cap- 

 ital," which, with every reading of "Wake Robin," inspires the 

 bird-lover with fresh zeal, Mr. Burroughs writes of the Kentucky 

 warbler: " I meet with him in low, damp places, in the woods, 

 usually on the steep sides of some little run. I hear at intervals 

 a clear, strong, bell-like whistle or warble, and presently catch a 

 glimpse of the bird as he jumps up from the ground to take an 

 insect or worm from the under side of a leaf. This is his charac- 

 teristic movement. He belongs to the class of ground warblers, 

 and his range is very low, indeed lower than that of any other 

 species with which I am acquainted." 



196 



