Conspicuously Black and White 



times those of northern New England, are the chosen home of 

 this little bird that builds a nest of bits of root, lichens, and sedges, 

 amply large for a family twice the size of his. 



Black-and-white Creeping Warbler 



(Mniotilta varia) Wood Warbler family 



Called also : VARIED CREEPING WARBLER ; BLACK-AND- 

 WHITE CREEPER; WHITEPOLL WARBLER 



Length — 5 to 5. 5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English 

 sparrow. 



Male — Upper parts white, varied with black. A white stripe 

 along the summit of the head and back of the neck, edged 

 with black. White line above and below the eye. Black 

 cheeks and throat, grayish in females and young. Breast 

 white in middle, with black stripes on sides. Wings and 

 tail rusty black, with two white cross-bars on former, and 

 soiled white markings on tail quills. 



Female — Paler and less distinct markings throughout. 



Hange — Peculiar to America. Eastern United States and west- 

 ward to the plains. North as far as the fur countries. Win- 

 ters in tropics south of Florida. 



Migrations — April. Late September. Summer resident. 



Nine times out of ten this active little warbler is mistaken for 

 the downy woodpecker, not because of his coloring alone, but 

 also on account of their common habit of running up and down 

 the trunks of trees and on the under side of branches, looking for 

 insects, on which all the warblers subsist. But presently the true 

 warbler characteristic of restless flitting about shows itself. A 

 woodpecker would go over a tree with painstaking, systematic 

 care, while the black-and-white warbler, no less intent upon 

 securing its food, hurries off from tree to tree, wherever the most 

 promising menu is offered. 



Clinging to the mottled bark of the tree-trunk, which he so 

 closely resembles, it would be diificult to find him were it not 

 for these sudden flittings and the feeble song, " Weachy, 

 weachy, weachy, 'twee, 'twee, 'tweet," he half lisps, half sings 

 between his dashes after slugs. Very rarely indeed can his nest 

 be fouad in an old stump or mossy bank, where bark, leaves, 

 and hair make the downy cradle for his four or five tiny babies. 



