Length: About 5 inches.
Male: Crown _yellow_, bordered with black; back gray, streaked with
black and yellow; _ear-patch and under parts white_; black line
extending from bill meets _broad chestnut streak_ which runs down
the side of the body; wings with two broad yellowish-white
wing-bars; tail black, outer feathers with large white spots varying
in size.
Female: Somewhat like male, but duller; the colors are less sharply
contrasted.
Song: In the spring a loud warble, not unlike that of the yellow
warbler; in the summer, a weaker trill.[157]
Habitat: Thickets, bushy roadsides, edges of woods, open woodlands.
Range: Eastern North America from central Canada to eastern Nebraska,
northern Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, and in
the Alleghany Mts. to Tennessee and North Carolina.
The male Chestnut-sided Warbler is very easily identified; its sharp
contrasts in coloring make it conspicuous. While the bay-breasted
warbler also has chestnut sides, it differs in having the color extend
to the breast and throat, instead of bordering the white under parts.
The dainty little chestnut-sided warbler is rather commoner than some
species. Dr. F. H. Herrick in his book, "The Home Life of Wild Birds,"
tells of taming a female. She ate from his hand and allowed him to
stroke her as she sat on her nest.
THE THRUSHES
_Thrush Family--Turdidæ_
Six members of the Thrush Family are more or less common in the eastern
United States: the Robin, the Bluebird, the Wood Thrush, the Hermit
Thrush, the Olive-backed Thrush, and the Veery. The Gray-cheeked and
Bicknell's thrushes are not so widely known. The Russet-backed Thrush is
the western representative of the Olive-back.
The Oven-bird, or Golden-crowned Thrush, and the Water-thrushes are not
thrushes at all, but warblers, though they resemble thrushes in having
brown backs and light spotted breasts, and in being dwellers of the
woods. The Brown Thrasher, sometimes wrongly called the Brown Thrush,
also has points of resemblance--a speckled breast and bright brown
back--but he is one of the Mimidæ or Mockingbird Family.
The breasts of young robins and the backs of baby bluebirds are spotted,
showing their family relationship. Both robins and bluebirds have voices
that possess a quality for which our thrushes are noted. I have heard
the English thrush, famed in poetry. I consider its song inferior in
quality of tone to those of our wood and hermit-thrushes, and veery; it
strongly resembles that of our thrasher.
The true thrushes of our woods have backs of leaf-brown, varying in hue
from bright russet to dull olive. Their breasts are white or buff,
streaked or spotted; their tails are short; their eyes, large and
lustrous. Their movements are quick, yet graceful. Their demeanor is
gentle, though I have seen them strongly aroused when nest or young was
disturbed.
[Illustration: WOOD THRUSH]