608 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
species it rises to a slightly higher key at the close, while the Cerulean’s 
ditty is uniform throughout.” Langille says: ‘Its song may be imitated 
by the syllables ‘pheet, pheet, pheet, pheet, ridi, idi, e-e-e-e-e-e-e;’ be- 
ginning with several soft warbling notes and ending in a rather prolonged 
but quite musical squeak.” 
Its food does not seem to differ materially from that of other arboreal 
warblers; it is probably beneficial, certainly not injurious to the agri- 
culturist. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult male: Above bright grayish-blue, often clear blue on forehead and crown, more 
or less streaked with black on the back; chin, throat, and sides of neck pure white, as is 
also the middle of the breast and belly; an imperfect band of bluish or black streaks across 
the upper breast, and sides streaked with the same; wings brownish-black, the tertials 
often edged with white, and two white bars across the coverts; tail-feathers black, margined 
externally with blue, all the feathers except the central pair with rounded white patches 
on the inner webs. Female showing very little blue; the upper parts olive-green, merely 
glossed with blue; the lower parts soiled whitish, often yellowish or even buffy. Length 
4 to 5 inches; wing 2.40 to 2.70; tail 1.70 to 1.90; female decidedly smaller. 
276. Chestnut-sided Warbler. Dendroica pensylvanica (Linn.). (659) 
Synonyms: Yellow-crowned Warbler, Quebec Warbler.—Motacilla pensylvanica, 
Linn., 1766.—Sylvia pensylvanica, Wils., 1810.—Sylvia icterocephala, Lath., 1790.— 
Dendroica (or Dendreeca) pennsylvanica of most recent authors. 
Figure 137. 
The whole top of head is yellow, the under parts clear white, except 
for a broad stripe of chestnut which runs along each side from neck to tail. 
Distribution.—Eastern United States and Southern Ontario, west to 
Manitoba and the Plains, breeding southward to central Illinois and 
northern New Jersey, and in the Appalachian highlands probably to 
northern Georgia. Visits the Bahamas, eastern Mexico, Central America 
and Panama in winter. 
An abundant migrant throughout the entire state, and in all but the 
southern half of the Lower Peninsula an abundant summer resident. 
In the latter region it nests regularly, but less com- 
monly, so that it is reported as not breeding by 
several observers in the southern counties. Never- 
theless a few doubtless breed in every county in the 
state, and in the higher parts of the Lower Peninsula 
and in the Upper Peninsula it is one of the most 
abundant warblers during the summer, frequenting 
open hardwood and second growth regions and 
showing a decided preference for shrubby fields ; : ; 
Fig. 137. Chestnut-sided 
and the bushy margins of forests. It is seldom warbier. From Hoffmann's 
Guide. Houghton, Mifflin 
x OO. 
found in the evergreen swamps or the dense woods, 9" 
but on the contrary is often found in thickets along 
the roadsides and in briar patches and tangles along the borders of the 
smaller swamps. 
It arrives from the south from about the first of May in the southern 
counties to the 15th or 20th of the month in the northern parts of the 
state. Mr. Norman A. Wood gives the average date for twenty-five 
years at Ann Arbor as May 11, but it has been seen there as early as April 
