SONG BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 191 
often goes to orchards near the woods, and seeks canker- 
worms and other tree pests. Dr. Warren says that it eats 
earthworms. While mainly inseetivorous, this bird can sub- 
sist partly on farinaceous food. Jt picks up many small 
seeds, and dwellers in the woods find it coming about the 
doors for crumbs. 
Black and White Warbler. Black and White Creeper. 
Mniotilta varia. 
Length. — About five and one-quarter inches. 
Adult Male.—Streaked generally except on belly with black and white; belly 
white; fine streaks on sides of neck and lower back sometimes give a gray 
effect. 
Adult Female. — Much the same, except duller, with colors more suffused ; under 
parts mainly white, with obscure streaks on sides. 
Nest. — On ground; much like Oven-bird’s ; similarly concealed, and often roofed, 
but smaller; it is sometimes built in a hollow tree. 
Egys.— White, brown-spotted at large end. 
Season. — April to September. 
This common, well-known Warbler, which rarely builds 
its nest in trees, resorts to them for a greater part of its 
food. The bird is usually found in woodlands, ranging from 
low river valleys to the slopes of high 
hills. It usually nests on dry land in 
deciduous woods, where it may be seen 
throughout the season creeping about old 
stumps, shrubbery, and the trunks and = 
limbs of trees. It follows out the limbs, pig. 63.— Black and 
peering quickly here and there, over and a Riiscric a Ries 
back, in its endless search for insects. 
Its usual notes are a thin screep or chirp, and a sharp 
chick. The ordinary song is a repetition of such notes, not 
unmusical, and characteristic of the woods. Mr. Hoffman 
describes it as wee-see’, wee-see’, wee-see'; but the bird has 
another lay, far more musical and varied than this, which is 
often heard early in the season, when the first males come. 
This burst of melody is usually preceded by a few notes of 
its common song. It chatters also when it is excited or 
disturbed by some enemy. This bird largely takes the eco- 
nomic place in summer that is so well filled by the Brown 
Creeper in the winter woods, but it is not so much confined 
