WARBLERS, a popular name applied in different countries to a variety of small in sectivorous birds belonging to quite distinct families, but resembling one another in habits and appearance. The American warblers, to which the book name °wood-warblers') is often given, belong to the extensive family Mniotil tidte and include a varied assemblage of generic types somewhat closely related to the tanagers (Tanagridce). They are small birds, with one or two exceptions about five inches in length. Their colors are bright and varied, yellow often predominating, with patches of red, blue, jprown, black or white in conspicuous places; but the females are often plain and often closely re semble one another in the different species. The bill varies, but is generally rather slender, pointed, slightly curved and without a hooked tip, a tooth or a deep notch; the feet are rather small with scutellate tarsi and present no posi tive characters; the primary wing-quills are nine, the secondaries are not elongated and the tail-quills are 12 in number. Owing. to the great diversity of the genera it is practically.impos sible to give any brief definition covering all. Various groupings of the genera into sub families have been proposed, but with the ex ception of the well-marked Icteriinte, which are decidedly aberrant, they all intergrade more or less easily. A division such as follows is con venient and fairly natural. The typical warblers (Sykicolince) have the wings nearly always longer than the tail, the bill slender and coni cal, with the commissure slightly curved and the rictal bristles short or wanting. The fly catching warblers (Setophagince) have sim ilar wings and tail, with the bill broad and flattened at the base the commissure slightly curved and the rietal bristles numerous and very long. The chats Ucteriince) have the wings shorter than the tail, the bill high, cotnpressed and stout, with strongly curved commissure and no rictal bristles. They are much larger than any of the members of the other subfamilies. There are, in round numbers, about 130 species of known warblers, strictly confined to Amer ica; the flycatching warblers being found in greatest variety and abundance in northern South America, Central America and the West Indies, while the Sylvicolince are pre-eminently characteristic of North America.
Warblers are all insectivorous and migra tory, chiefly inhabitants of the woods and thick ets and because of their varied habits and great abundance among the most interesting of our birds. They build on the ground, in bushes, in crevices or high up in tall trees, nests exhibit ing a great diversity in material and archi tecture. The name warbler probably alludes to . their constancy rather than to their ability as musicians, for their songs, though attractive and interesting, are, with a few exceptions, not highly melodious. The varied role played by warblers in nature has been well expressed by Dr. Cones in the following poetic passage: °The warblers have we always with us, all in their ovm good time; they come out of the South, pass on, return and are away again; their appearance and withArawal scarcely less than a mystery; many stay with us all suinmer long, and some brave the winters in our midst. Some of these slight creatures, guided by un erring instinct, travel true to the meridian in thelours of darkness, slipping past (like a thief in the night,) stopping at daybreak from their lofty flights to rest and recruit for the next stage of the journey. Others pass more leisurely from tree to tree, in a ceaseless tide of migration, gleaning as they go; the hardier males, in full song and plumage, lead the way for the wealcer females and yearlings. With tireless industry do the warblers befriend the human race; their unconscious zeal plays due part in the nice adjustment of Nature's forces, helping to bring about that balance of vegetable and insect life without which agriculture would be in vain. They visit the orchard when the apple and pear, the peach, plum and cherry are in bloom, seeming to revel carelessly amid the sweet-scented and deliciously tinted blos soms, but never faltering in their good work. They peer into the crevices of the bark, scruti nize each leaf, and explore the very heart of the buds, to detect, drag forth and destroy those tiny creatures, singly insignificant, collectively a scourge, which prey upon the hopes of the fruit-grower, and which, if undisturbed, would bring his care to naught. Some warblers flit
incessantly in the terminal foliage of the tallest trees; others hug close to the scored trunks and gnarled boughs of the forest kings ; some peep from the thicket, the coppice, the impene trable mantle of shrubbery that decks tiny water courses, playing hide-and-seek with all comers; others, more humble still, descend to the ground, where they glide with pretty minc ing steps and affected turning of the head this way and that, their delicate flesh-tinted feet just stirring the layer of withered leaves with which a past season carpeted the ground. We seek warblers everywhere in their season; we shall find them a continual surprise" Of the Sylvicolina nine genera and 46 spe cies are North American, the principal genera being Dendroica, the larg-est by far, Helmintho phila and Geothlypis. The diagnostic colors of many are sufficiently indicated by their vernacu lar names, which, however, are generally de scriptive of the full-plumaged males only. The black and white creeping warbler (Mniotilta varia) has the sexes similarly colored and is a common migratory woodland species through out eastern North America, breeding from Vir ginia northward and wintering from the Gulf Coast into South America. In feeding habits it resembles the brown creeper rather than the other warblers, climbing the tree trunks and larger branches by clinging to the bark, search ing the crevices for insects and their eggs, but not using the tail as a prop. The song is a feeble unmusical trill, but the call notes are varied. A simple nest on the ground of bark, moss, grass, etc., contains four or five eggs, white with profuse reddish-brown spots. Pro tonotaria includes only P. citrea, the prothono tary warbler, a beautiful species whose pre vailing color in both sexes is golden with olivaceous and bluish above and the tail-quills largely white; the bill is unusually long, acute and black. It breeds in most of the United States east of Nebraska, but is rare in the East north of Virginia. It haunts swampy woods and thickets and nests in holes of trees. An interesting species of striking aspect is the worm-eating warbler (Helmintherus vermi vorus), with a stout acute bill without bristles, a very short tail and strong feet In both sexes the back is olivaceous, the under parts buff and the head conspicuously marked with four longi tudinal black stripes. A common bird of the eastern United States west to Nebraska and north to southern New England, breeding over this range and wintering in the Antilles and northern South America. It is a bird of the woodland undergrowths and nests on the ground, the four or fivc eggs being brilliant white with fine dots of reddish brown. The popular name is a misnomer as it does not feed on worms but chiefly on caterpillars and spiders. The best known of the Helminthophila is the blue-winged yellow warbler (H. pinus) having about the limits of range of the last and much resembling it in habits though they are more active and arboreal and often frequent the shrubbery of parks and well-kept grounds. The Nashville warbler (H. ruficapilla) is a plain species; the males in breeding-dress olive above, yellow below, the latter remaining even in the duller autumn colors. Except in the extreme Northern States this species is a migrant only, but very common in the United States, breeds in the British provinces and winters in Mexico and Central America. This genus also includes the golden-winged, Tennessee and orange-crowned warblers of the eastern United States and several western spe cies, besides some rarities which are supposed to be hybrids. No warbler is better lcnown than the little gaily-dressed parula or blue-yel low-backed warbler (Compsothlypis americana) which breeds in the United States and lower Canada west to the great plains and winters in the West Indies and Central America. They are very common in open woods during the migrations and distributed more locally in swampy districts and river valleys during the breeding period, probably attracted by the abundance of the long-stemmed Usnea or °Spanish moss,° of which their beautiful, usually globular hanging nests, are in chief part con structed. Like the Dendroicas they are true tree-warblers, incessantly flitting about the outermost twigs, turning and hanging in every conceivable attitude and often taking short flights in pursuit of flying insects.