Interest in this bird is heightened by the fact that it is exceedingly shy, 

 not only keeping to the wilder glens and out-of-the-way places, but carefully 

 avoiding exposure of its golden plumage when found. More than once the 

 bird-man has crept on hands and knees through a thicket to obtain a glimpse 

 of this demure beauty, thus rendering an homage which a less modest bird 

 could not have compelled. Like most birds, however, the male Kentucky lays 

 aside inconvenient scruples during the season of song, and his voice is one of 

 the boldest as well as sweetest in the woods. At this time he mounts a low 

 branch, and, standing lengthwise, pours out at frequent intervals a clear, rich, 

 ringing strain of three or four similar notes. "Pee-u-dle, pee-u-dle, pee-ii-dle," 

 he seems to Mr. E. J. Arrick of McConnellsville to say; while other birds less 

 commonly accent the last syllable of each phrase, tit-oo-reet, tit-oo-reet, tit-oo- 

 reet. So intent does the bird become upon his music that if frightened from one 

 perch he will immediately resume his song upon another. 



As in the case of all ground-nesting warblers, the nest is rather dif¥icult to 

 find, since it is committed to the protection of some obscure weed-clump or 

 sapling. The surest method of discovery is to spy upon the female while the 

 nest is a-making. According to Messrs. Morris and Arrick. who have had 

 great success in finding the nest of this Warbler, they are to be sought upon 

 the bottoms of the glades rather than upon the hillsides, where the birds other- 

 wise spend the greater portion of their time. 



The Kentucky Warbler, with its rich colors and symmetrical form, is to 

 be classed among the elect of the warbler tribe. Moreover, while locally com- 

 mon it is never so abundant that it does not excite a thrill of interest in the 

 breast of even the most blase of bird observers. It loves the deep, dark forest 

 and shaded ravine, where the foliage overhead casts heavy shadows on the 

 plentiful undergrowth beneath and where even in midsummer it is moist and 

 cool. 



The bird is a persistent singer, and in its own chosen haunts its loud, sweet 

 song may be heard all day long. There is a curious resemblance between its 

 ditty and that of the Carolina Wren, and while no one can mistake the two 

 songs when heard close by, at a distance even the expert may be puzzled. This 

 Warbler finds most of its food on the ground, and the thick undergrowth in 

 which it hunts makes it difficult to learn much of its habits by observation, 

 since it is difficult to keep an individual in sight many minutes at a time. 



It builds a rather loose, bulky nest, largely of leaves and grasses, which is 

 placed either on or just above the ground, and although it may seem to have 

 been rather artlessly located it is in reality well protected by the surrounding 

 vegetation with which it blends, and hence generally escapes the observation of 

 all but the most persistent and sharp-sighted of observers. 



687 



