586 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
The food like that of the other members of the genus, consists mainly 
of insects, and so far as we know has no marked peculiarities. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult male: Forehead and crown bright yellow, the rest of the upper parts bluish 
gray, and this color shading the sides below; lores, cheeks and most of the throat and upper 
breast velvet black; a white stripe above the eye, another and broader one running back- 
ward from the base of the lower mandible to the side of the neck, separating the black 
of the cheeks from that of the throat; middle of the breast and belly white, sometimes in 
full plumage tinged with yellow; two conspicuous yellow wing-bars, often so broad as 
to run together into a single large patch; three outer pairs of tail-feathers with large white 
blotches on the inner webs; bill black. Adult female similar, but the black areas all re- 
placed by light slate, and the yellow of the crown mostly replaced by bright olive-green. 
Length 4 to 5 inches; wing 2.40 to 2.50; tail about 2. 
266. Nashville Warbler. Vermivora rubricapilla rubricapilla (Wilson). (645) 
Synonyms: Nashville Swamp Warbler.—Sylvia rubricapilla, Wilson, 1812.—Sylvia 
ruficapilla, Aud., 1831.—Helminthophaga ruficapilla, Baird, 1858.——Helminthophila 
ruficapilla, Ridgw., 1882, A. O. U. Check-list, 1886.—Vermivora rubricapilla, Sw. and 
Rich., 1831. 
Mainly olive above and bright yellow below, without spots or streaks; 
crown bluish-gray with a partly concealed reddish-brown or chestnut 
patch; no wing bars or white tail spots. 
Distribution.—Eastern North America to the Plains, north to the Fur 
Countries, breeding from northern United States northward. Mexico 
and Guatemala in winter. 
This little warbler is a rather common migrant throughout the state 
and a frequent summer resident throughout the northern half of the Lower 
Peninsula and most of the Upper Peninsula. It seems to have a preference 
in summer for tamarack swamps and low lying tracts of evergreens, especi- 
ally about the margins and openings, but during migration it is found in 
all sorts of situations, perhaps as often in orchards as elsewhere. In spite 
of the fact that it invariably nests on the ground, the bird keeps well up 
in the tops of trees during its migration and apparently gets the larger 
part of its food from such places. We do not recall ever having seen one 
on the ground, or searching for food within a foot or two of the ground. 
The food consists mainly if not entirely of insects, and the bird would be 
decidedly beneficial were it more abundant. 
The nest is usually well hidden in the thick herbage, or among the moss, 
in comparatively low ground, and it has been repeatedly found embedded 
in the peat moss (Sphagnum) so common in tamarack swamps. It is 
neatly made, deeply hollowed, and consists of fine grasses, roots and 
similar materials, often lined with long hairs. The eggs are three to six, 
most often four or five, creamy white, thickly and minutely spotted with 
reddish brown. They average .61 by .47 inches. 
The distribution in the breeding season is not well made out in Michigan, 
since the bird is apparently not abundant anywhere during the nesting 
season. ‘So far as we are aware no nest has been found in any of the four 
southern tiers of counties, and the bird is reported as a migrant only at 
Plymouth, Petersburg, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor. On 
the other hand, Dr. Gibbs found it a summer resident in Montcalm county; 
Dr. Dunham in Kalkaska county; Widmann in Emmet county, and several 
observers in various parts of the Upper Peninsula. It usually arrives 
