BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER. 
BLACK AND WHITE CREEPER. 
Mniotilta varia. 
Char. Above, black striped with white, head, wings, and tail mostly 
black; beneath, white, more or less striired with black. Female and 
young without stripes on the throat. Length 4% to sH inches. 
A^esi. In open woodland or pasture ; placed at the foot of a tree or 
stump, or at the base of a moss-covered rock, sometimes in a hole ; made 
of grass, moss, and shreds of bark, and lined with grass, hair, roots, and 
vegetable down. 
Aaiw- 4-5: creamy white, thickly spotted with pale reddish brown; 
0.65 X 0.50. 
This remarkable bird, allied to the Creepers, is another 
rather common summer resident in most parts of the United 
States, and probably migrates pretty far to the north. It 
arrives in Louisiana by the middle of February, visits Pennsyl- 
vania about the second week in April, and a week later appears 
in the woods of New England, protracting its stay in those 
countries till the beginning of October, and lingering on the 
southern limits of the Union a month later, so that it does not 
appear to be much affected by the commencement of frost, 
and probably at this season occasionally feeds on berries. 
As numbers are observed round Vera Cruz toward the com- 
mencement of winter, and are described as inhabiting the 
West India islands, it is probable they pass the extremity of 
the winter beyond the southern boundary of the Union. 
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