NASHVILLE WABBLER. 
63 
little birds, usually frequenting hummocks and the underbrush which grows about them. I think 
they rarely visit the pine woods. These birds are very unsuspicious and may be approached 
quite nearly but when alarmed will utter a quick, sharp chirp and instantly conceal themselves in 
the nearest thicket. I never heard them sing, and never have seen a specimen during the 
nesting season, yet it is probable that a few breed in the state. 
HELMINTHOPHAGA PUFICAPILLA. 
Nashville Warbler. 
Helminthophaga ruficapilla Baird, Birds of North America, 1858, 256. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Form, slender. Size, small. Bill, not long. Tail, slightly emarginate. Sternum, rather slightly built and 
although a little smaller than that of the preceding, it is of the same form and proportions. Tongue, not long, thin, 
narrow and horny. The end is quite deeply cleft, but it is only ciliated on the extreme end, and there the cilia are 
very short. 
Color. Adult male. Above, bright olivaceous green, with the head and neck above, and on the sides ashy. 
There is a partly concealed patch of chestnut on the crown. The wings and tail are brown, edged on the outer webs 
with greenish. Beneath, very bright yellow, with the abdomen white. There is an indication of a yellowish 
superciliary line, and a ring around the eye is whitish. 
Adult female, very similar, but paler above and below, and having less chestnut on the crown. 
The young lack the chestnut crown. The head and neck are brownish instead of ashy; there is a brownish 
suffusion over the back, and the yellow beneath is quite pale; there is even a tinge of ashy on the throat. Irides, 
feet and bill, brown, but with the lower mandible lighter. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Easily known in the adult stage by the chestnut crown, ashy head and yellow under pai’ts. The young are also 
distinguished from those of H. celata by the yellow beneath, celata being very ashy-gray on these portions. Found 
in summer throughout Eastern United States from Florida to Maine; winters in Mexico and Central America, also 
rarely found in Florida at this season. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Average measurements of fourteen specimens from New England. — Length, 4-75; stretch, 7'50; wing, 2-35; 
tail, 1*70; bill, AO; tarsus, -62. Longest specimen, 5-51; greatest extent of wings, 7-75; longest wing, 2-50; tail, 
1-85; bill, *45; tarsus, -67. Shortest specimen, 4-55; smallest extent of wings, 2-80; shortest witfg, 2-22; tail, 1-60; 
bill, 38; tarsus, -60. 
DESCRIPTION OF NEST AND EGGS. 
Nest, composed outwardly of green moss, then dried grasses, lined with finer grasses and some white hairs. 
Dimensions: external diameter, 3‘50 inches, internal, 2-25; external depth, 2-75 inches, internal, 1-25. 
Eggs, four in number, rather pointed, creamy white in color, spotted and blotched on the larger end with 
reddish-brown and lilac, where they sometimes form rings. The remaining surface of the egg is also sparsely 
dotted with brown. Dimensions, *66x-50. The above description was made from a nest taken at West Newbury, 
by my young friend, Gilman Brown. 
HABITS. 
I shot the first specimen of these little birds, that I had ever seen, many years ago, in 
Newton. As this was the first knowledge I ever obtained of their existence, and as they 
appeared entirely different from any birds which 1 had hitherto observed, I, like most young 
collectors when they obtain an unfamiliar bird, considered them a new species. I had taken 
two, one of each sex, and hastened home with my prizes to ascertain for a certainty if they had 
ever been described, eagerly thinking over the matter that I might decide upon an appropriate 
name for such pretty birds ; but found that I had counted a species before it was hatched, 
for upon consulting the proper books, discovered, much to my disappointment that the 
Nashville Warblers had not only been known for years but that they were not even rare; 
all the ornithologists agreeing in pronouncing them common. Consequently, the little 
yellow-breasted and red-crowned birds fell many degrees in my estimation. 
