THE TOWNSEND'S WARBLER. 



[Dendroica townsendi.) 



Dr. Robert Ridgway, in the Ornithol- 

 ogy of Illinois, uses the following words 

 in speaking of that family of birds called 

 the American Warblers (Mniotilidae), 

 "No group of birds more deserves the 

 epithet of pretty than the Warblers ; Tan- 

 agers are splendid ; Humming-birds are 

 refulgent ; other kinds are brilliant, gaudy 

 or magnificent, but Warblers alone are 

 pretty in the proper and full sense of that 

 term." 



As they are full of nervous activity, and 

 are "eminently migratory birds," they 

 seem to flit rather than fly through the 

 United States as they pass northward in 

 the spring to their breeding places, and 

 southward in the fall to their winter homes 

 among the luxuriant forests and planta- 

 tions of the tropics. All the species are 

 purely American, and as they fly from 

 one extreme to the other of their migra- 

 tory range they remain but a few days in 

 any intermediate locality. Time seems 

 to be an important matter with them. It 

 would seem as if every moment of day- 

 light was used in the gathering of food 

 and the night hours in continuing their 

 journey. 



The American Warblers include more 

 than one hundred species grouped in 

 about twenty genera. Of these species 

 nearly three-fourths are represented in 

 North America at least as summer vis- 

 itants, the remaining species frequenting 

 only the tropics. Though woodland 

 birds they exhibit many and widely sep- 

 arated modes of life, some of the species 

 preferring only aquatic regions, while 

 others seek drier soils. Some make their 



homes in shrubby places, while others are 

 seldom found except in forests. As their 

 food is practically confined to insects, 

 they frequent our lawns and orchards 

 during their migrations, when they fly in 

 companies which may include several 

 species. Mr. Chapman, in his Handbook 

 of Birds of Eastern North America, says, 

 "Some species flit actively from branch to 

 branch, taking their prey from the more 

 exposed parts of the twigs and leaves ; 

 others are gleaners, and carefully explore 

 the under surfaces of leaves or crevices in 

 the bark ; while several, like Flycatchers, 

 capture a large part of their food on the 

 wing." 



The Townsend's Warbler is a native of 

 Western North America, especially near 

 the Pacific coast. Its range extends from 

 Sitka on the north to Central America on 

 the south, where it appears during the 

 winter. In its migration it wanders as far 

 east as Colorado. It breeds from the 

 southern border of the United States 

 northward, nesting in regions of cone- 

 bearing trees. It is said that the nest of 

 this Warbler is usually placed at a conn 

 siderable height, though at times as low 

 as from five to fifteen feet from the 

 ground. The nest is built of strips of 

 fibrous bark, twigs, long grasses and 

 wool, compactly woven together. This is 

 lined with hair, vegetable down and 

 feathers. 



The eggs are described as buffy white, 

 speckled and spotted with reddish brown 

 and lilac-gray, about three-fifths of an 

 inch in length by about one-half of an 

 inch in diameter. 



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