The Prairie Warbler {Dendroica discolor) 



By C. Hart Merriam 



Description. — Adult male : Above olive-green, brightening on crown, with 

 a triangular area of chestnut-rufous spots or confluent streaks on back; below 

 and on sides of head bright yellow, most intense on superciliary, cheek and throat ; 

 with heavy black streaks or stripes on sides of breast and flanks ; a blackish line 

 through eye and a broad, black malar stripe; crissum pale, yellowish white; 

 wings and tail dusky with greenish gray edgings on external webs ; middle 

 coverts yellowish white on tips ; greater coverts edged terminally with gray on 

 outer web, the two forming indistinct bars ; two outer pairs of tail-feathers 

 broadly white on inner webs, third pair with central spot ; bill blackish ; feet 

 dark brown. Adidt female : Similar to male but duller, and with chestnut- 

 rufous of back much reduced or wanting. Immature: Like female but ashy 

 on head (ear-coverts), ashy olive-green above; paler yellow below, etc. Length 

 4.25-5.00 (108.-127.); av. of four Columbus specimens; wing 2.19 (55:6) ; tail 

 1.74 (44.2) ; bill .37 (9.4). 



Recognition Marks. — Smallest of the genus ; chestnut-rufous of back distinc- 

 tive ; bears some resemblance to D. maculosa below, but smaller and otherwise 

 quite different. 



Nest, in bushes or saplings, deeply cup-shaped, composed of fine grasses, 

 plant-fiber, and down, lined with hair. Eggs, 4 or 5, white or greenish white, 

 marked with reddish brown and olive-brown, chiefly in a wreath about the larger 

 end. . Av. size, .65x.49 (16.5x12.5).' 



General Range. — Eastern United States to the Plains, breeding from Florida 

 north to Michigan and southern New England. Winters in Southern Florida 

 and the West Indies. 



After D kirtlandi the Prairie Warbler is with us the rarest of the genus. 

 Its normal range lies much farther south, and those which penetrate our state 

 are to be regarded only as pioneers or as adventurerers without fixed habits. 

 Professor Jones has seen single males at Oberhn on two diflferent occasions, 

 but there are no records for Ontario ; and it seems probable that those birds 

 which reach the Lake Erie short in spring turn southward again before settling 

 for the summer. 



On the 11th of June, 1903, I came across a singing male on a hill-top near 

 Sugar Grove, at the point shown in the illustration. The bird moved restlessly 

 from place to place, singing indifferently from the depths of black-berry thickets, 

 from the tips of oak saplings, or from the foliage of surrounding forest trees. 

 His time was about equally divided between singing and bug-catching, and altho 

 he might remain in a single clump for five minutes at a time, the bird did not 

 keep the same position for two consecutive seconds. Even during song- he 

 would twist and writhe like an Italian prima donna, producing quite as much 

 motion as music. 



688 



