Length -- 5.50 inches. Less than an inch shorter than the English
sparrow.
Male and Female -- Greenish olive above. Head yellowish brown,
With two black stripes through crown to the nape; also black
Lines from the eyes to neck. Under parts buffy and white.
Range -- Eastern parts of United States. Nests as far north as
southern Illinois and southern Connecticut. Winters in the Gulf
States and southward.
Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident.
In the Delaware Valley and along the same parallel, this inconspicuous warbler
is abundant, but north of New Jersey it is rare enough to give an excitement
to the day on which you discover it. No doubt it is commoner than we suppose,
for its coloring blends so admirably with its habitats that it is probably
very often overlooked. Its call-note, a common chirp, has nothing
distinguishing about it, and all ornithologists confess to having been often
misled by its song into thinking it came from the chipping sparrow. It closely
resembles that of the pine warbler also. If it were as nervously active as
most warblers, we should more often discover it, but it is quite as deliberate
as a vireo, and in the painstaking way in which it often circles around a tree
while searching for spiders and other insects that infest the trunks, it
reminds us of the brown creeper. Sunny slopes and hillsides covered with thick
undergrowth are its preferred foraging and nesting haunts. It is often seen
hopping directly on the dry ground, where it places its nest, and it never
mounts far above it. The well-drained, sunny situation for the home is chosen
with the wisdom of a sanitary expert.