608 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
as strongly represented numerically at 10,000 feet as at a lower altitude. 
Its habits are everywhere the same, and the sweet, half meditative 
notes of its beautiful song have the same power to charm the ear in 
the solitude of its wild home as when heard under the more familiar 
conditions of civilization” (1875, pp. 221-222). 
Additional Literature.—Finley, W. L., Condor, V, 61-64, 1903.— Rust, H. 
J., Condor, XXII, 85-94, 1920. 
WOOD WARBLERS: Family Mniotiltidae 
The Wood Warblers, next to the Finches and Sparrows the largest 
family of North American birds, with one or two exceptions are small 
birds, hardly averaging over five inches in length. They have only 
nine primaries, and the bill, which varies greatly, is usually an elongated 
cone. It is never strongly hooked or toothed at the end as in the 
Shrikes and Vireos, nor greatly flattened with gape reaching to eyes 
as in the Swallows. In Vermivora the bill is slender and very acute, 
unnotched and unbristled; in Dendroica it lacks the extreme acuteness, 
is notched near the tip and has rictal bristles, while the tail always 
has white (or yellow) blotches; in Seiurus , Oporornis , and Geothlypis 
the wings and tail are without blotches; in Icteria the bill is stout and 
high at base, curved, unnotched, and unbristled; in Wilsonia the bill 
is broad and depressed at base, rictal bristles developed; in Setophaga 
the bill is broad and flat, with long rictal bristles, and the tail is long 
and fan-shaped. As the warblers feed mainly upon insects, they are 
highly migratory, often flying thousands of miles from their summer 
to their winter home; and, as they migrate by night, great numbers 
are killed by striking against lighthouses and electric-light towers. 
With few exceptions, they are beautifully clothed in variegated 
colors, but the sexes are unlike, and the changes of plumage with age 
and season of the year are so strongly marked that great care must 
be taken in identifying the females and young (Coues). 
References.—Chapman, F. M., The Warblers of North America, 1907.— 
Cooke, W. W., Biol. Surv., U. S. Dept., Agr. Bull. 18, 1904 (distribution.and migra¬ 
tion). 
[GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER: Vermivora chrysoptera (Linnaeus) 
Description. — Length: About 4.2-4.0 inches; wing 2.4-2.6; tail 1.7-1.8; bill .4, 
tarsus .7. Adult male in spring and summer: Top of head and conspicuous patch on 
wing, bright yelloiv; rest of upper parts , including middle pair of tail feathers, bluish 
gray , tail and wings (except middle tail feathers) blackish, edged with gray; inner 
webs of three outer tail feathers extensively white; throat black and vnde black eye streak 
between white streaks; median underparts white, sides gray. Adult male in winter: 
Similar, but yellow of crown and gray of back more or less obscured by olive-green 
feather tips; bill brownish instead of black. Adult female: Similar to male but duller, 
black of head replaced by gray, and upperparts and sides usually tinged with green. 
