288 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PASSEBES—OSCINES. 



group; meanwhile, the very diversity of forms included in it enables us to mark off sections 

 with ease. 



This is the second largest family of North American birds, the Frmgillida alone surpass- 

 ing it in number of species. If not exactly " representative, " in a technical sense, of the Old 

 World SylviincB, it may be considered to replace that family in America, having much the 

 same rdle in bird-economy ; both families abound in species and individuals ; they are small, 

 migratory, insectivorous, and everywhere take prominent part in the make-up of the bird-fauna. 

 There are "upward of a hundred species of SylvicoUdm, distributed over the whole of North and 

 Middle America, and much of South America. The centre of abundance of the Setophagimce, 

 or flycatching warblers, is in the warmer parts of America ; comparatively few species reach 

 the United States, and only two or three are extensively dispersed in this country. On the 

 other hand, the SylvicoUnce are more particularly birds of North America ; very few of the 

 species are confined to Middle or South America ; and Dendiroeca, the leading type of this group, 

 is the largest, most beautiful, and most attractive genus of North American birds, preeminently 

 characteristic of this country. The warblers have we always with us, all in their own good 

 time; they come out of the South, pass on, return, and are away again, their appearance and 

 withdrawal scarcely less than a mystery ; many stay with us all summer long, and some brave 

 the winters in our midst. Some of these slight creatures, guided by unerring instinct, travel 

 true to the meridian in the hours of darkness, slipping past " like a thief in the night, " stoop- 

 ing at day-break from their lofty flights to rest and recruit for the next stage of the journey. 

 Others pass more leisurely from tree to tree, in a ceaseless tide of migration, gleaning as they 

 go ; the hardier males, in full song and plumage, lead the way for the weaker females and the 

 yearlings. With tireless industry do the warblers befriend the human race ; their unconscious 

 zeal plays due part in the nice adjustment of Nature's forces, helping to bring about that bal- 

 ance of vegetable and insect life without which agriculture would be in vain. They visit the 

 orchard when the apple and pear, the peach, plum, and cherry are in bloom, seeming to revel 

 carelessly amid the sweet-scented and delicately-tinted blossoms, but never faltering in their 

 good work. They peer into the crevices of the bark, scrutinize each leaf, and explore the very 

 heart of the buds, to detect, drag forth, and destroy those tiny creatures, singly ihsigmfioant, 

 collectively a scourge, which prey upon the hopes of the fruit-grower, and which, if undisturbed, 

 would bring his care to nought. Some warblers flit incessantly in the terminal foliage of the 

 tallest trees ; others hug close to the scored trunks and gnarled boughs of the forest kings ; 

 some peep from the thicket, the coppice, the impenetrable mantle of shrubbery that decks tiny 

 water-courses, playing at hide-and-seek with all comers ; others more humble stiU descend to 

 the ground, where they glide with pretty mincing steps and affected turning of the head this 

 way and that, their delicate flesh-tinted feet just stirring the layer of withered leaves with 

 which a past season carpeted the ground. We may seek warblers everywhere in their season ; 

 we shall find them a continual surprise; all mood and circumstance is theirs. 



As at present constituted, the SylvicolidcB, couiprising upwards of a hundred good species, 

 may be divided into three subfamilies, the characters of which, given more at length beyond, 

 may here be shortly contrasted : — 



Analysis of Subfamilies. 



Sylvicolimce. — Wings longer than tail (except in Geothlypis) ; bill conical, slender ; commissure slightly 

 curved, with short bristles or none. Size moderate. 



Icteriina. — Wings shorter than tail ; bill compressed, high, very stout ; commissure much curved, with- 

 out any bristles ; size very large. 



Setopliagimce. —'Wings longer than lail ; hill broad, flattened ; commissure slightly curved, with bristles 

 reaching far beyond the nostrils. 



Artificial Key to the Genera of Sylvicolidm. 



Length 7.00 inches or more Icteria 43 



Length 5.50 inches or more and tail-feathers plain Siwrua 40 



Length under 5.50 or tail-feathers not nlaln. 



