6 THE AWDOBON ,BUELE CON 
In fact, it is rather presumptuous on my part to write about a bird 
of which I have seen so little. I ask myself: ‘‘Do I know the Pine 
Warbler?” And I reply that I have never discovered its well-hidden 
nest; I have never studied its home life or observed the birds themselves 
for any length of time—indeed when I have seen them it has been, for 
the most part, but a fleeting glimpse and a bird is difficult to observe 
among dense clumps of pine needles. I have seen these birds occasionally 
upon the ground in the Southern pine woods and how yellow they would 
appear against the carpet of brown needles, but these birds were always 
quick to return again to the shelter of their pine tree; I have seen them 
fly down and cling for an instant to the bark of the tree, and perhaps 
make several stops as they would proceed upward along the trunk, 
somewhat in the manner of a Black and White Warbler, for which 
habit they have earned the name of “‘ Pine Creeping Warbler.” 
This Warbler has one of the most extended breeding ranges among 
warblers, covering the whole of eastern North America from the Gulf 
States to New Brunswick and Manitoba and westward nearly to the 
Plains. It may be looked for anywhere within this range where pine 
forests grow. Within our Chicago Area it is indeed a rare bird although 
we are well within the bird’s summer range. It is one of the few species 
of warblers that winter within the United States and it is a common 
winter species throughout our Southern States. 
It is a rather big, rather sluggish, rather dingy warbler, its plumage 
generally being more or less soiled with pitch, but I must say that some 
of the male birds I observed in Arkansas during February and March 
appeared brilliantly yellow, and when seen feeding upon the ground they 
appeared almost as yellow as a Yellow Warbler. The females were 
indeed drab in comparison, the two females that I collected showing but 
the barest trace of yellow in the plumage. 
The Pine Warbler’s nest is one of the most difficult nests to locate 
being generally placed well up among numerous clusters of pine cones. 
It may be on a horizontal limb or built among the small twigs toward 
the end of a limb. In whichever position it is very securely attached to 
its foundation. The height from the ground varies from twelve to eighty 
feet. The most constant thing about this nest being the fact that it is 
always placed in a pine tree. 
There are some warbler songs that we never forget: The wheezy notes 
of the Prairie Warbler; the “‘ Teacher, teacher, teacher,” of the Ovenbird, 
or the varied jumble of the Yellow-breasted Chat. Years may elapse 
since we last heard these birds sing and yet we recognize the singer at 
once. To me the song of the Pine Warbler is like that. This song consists 
of a rather slow, monotonous trill with little or no variation. In writing 
of this bird, Gerald Thayer says: “Its common song is clear and sweet; 
an unbroken, fluent trill, with a tone and character at once distinguish- 
able from those of other trilling wood-birds of New England.” Allison 
