WARBLERS. 123 



inch. They are white, with purplish and brown markings, or 

 fine markings of three shades of brown, sprinkled chiefly at 

 the " great end." 



c. The Pine Warblers have a very extensive breeding- 

 range, and are probably to be found in summer throughout 

 New England, in the pine-wooded districts. They are the first 

 of their family to reach the Eastern States in spring, and I 

 have seen them near Boston on the first of April. They usu- 

 ally, however, arrive here in the first or second week of that 

 month, and return to the South in the latter part of September, 

 occasionally lingering until the middle of October. Except 

 in the summer season, they are often more or less gregarious, 

 and associate with the "Red-polls" (Z>. palmarum hypo- 

 chrysea) and " Yellow-rumps." Moreover, in winter, spring, 

 and fall, they find much of their food upon the ground, like the 

 other Warblers that I have just mentioned, particularly the 

 former. They derive their name of "Pine Creepers" from 

 the fact that they occasionally cling to the trunks of trees, 

 and that they can move along the horizontal limbs with ease 

 and activity; but I have never known them to progress in 

 the manner of the Creepers or Woodpeckers. 



Their habits in summer do not differ very essentially from 

 those of the " Black-throated Greens." At that season, and 

 more particularly at the time of their migrations in April, they 

 may be found in woods of various kinds ; but they have a most 

 marked preference for pine woods and groves, from which they 

 occasionally ramble to near orchards. They do not often catch 

 insects in the air, but generally seek them among the higher 

 branches ; and it is often difficult to discover their whereabouts 

 — the more so that seemingly they are capital ventriloquists. 

 They have always seemed to me quiet and rather indolent, and 

 remarkably attentive to their dress. I have sometimes seen 

 them pause, for at least fifteen minutes, to smooth their feath- 

 ers or to rest, every minute " drawling out " their sweet note 

 quite mechanically. At other times they are very active, and 

 it is then impossible to keep sight of them for any great length 

 of time. As I have observed males, both in spring and sum- 

 mer, who apparently had neither mates nor nests, I think it 



