Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds 



white in outer quills. In autumn, plumage resembling the 



female's. 

 Female — Similar ; chin yellowish ; throat and breast dusky, the 



black being mixed with yellowish. 

 Range — Eastern North America, from Hudson Bay to Central 



America and Mexico. Nests north of Illinois and New York. 



Winters in tropics. 

 Migrations — May. October. Common summer resident north 



of New Jersey. 



There can be little difficulty in naming a bird so brilliantly 

 and distinctly marked as this green, gold, and black warbler, that 

 lifts up a few pure, sweet, tender notes, loud enough to attract 

 attention when he visits the garden. "See-see, see-saw," he 

 sings, but there is a tone of anxiety betrayed in the simple, syl- 

 van strain that always seems as if the bird needed reassuring, 

 possibly due to the rising inflection, like an interrogative, of the 

 last notes. 



However abundant about our homes during the migrations, 

 this warbler, true to the family instinct, retreats to the woods to 

 nest — not always so far away as Canada, the nesting ground of 

 most warblers, for in many Northern States the bird is commonly 

 found throughout the summer. Doubtless it prefers tall ever- 

 green trees for its mossy, grassy nest ; but it is not always par- 

 ticular, so that the tree be a tall one with a convenient fork in an 

 upper branch. 



Early in September increased numbers emerge from the 

 woods, the plumage of the male being less brilliant than when 

 we saw it last, as if the family cares of the summer had proved 

 too taxing. For nearly a month longer they hunt incessantly, with 

 much flitting about the leaves and twigs at the ends of branches 

 in the shrubbery and evergreens, for the tiny insects that the 

 warblers must devour by the million during their all too brief visit. 



i8s 



