(_Dendroica pennsylvanica_) Wood Warbler family
_Called also_: BLOODY-SIDED WARBLER
(Illustrations facing pp. 94 and 122)
_Length_--About 5 inches. More than an inch shorter than the
English sparrow.
_Male_--Top of head and streaks in wings yellow. A black line
running through the eye and round back of crown, and a black
spot in front of eye, extending to cheeks. Ear coverts, chin,
and underneath white. Back greenish gray and slate, streaked
with black. Sides of bird chestnut. Wings, which are streaked
with black and yellow, have yellowish-white bars. Very dark
tail with white patches on inner vanes of the outer quills.
_Female_--Similar, but duller. Chestnut sides are often
scarcely apparent.
_Range_--Eastern North America, from Manitoba and Labrador to
the tropics, where it winters.
_Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident, most common in
migrations.
In the Alleghanies, and from New Jersey and Illinois northward, this
restless little warbler nests in the bushy borders of woodlands and
the undergrowth of the woods, for which he forsakes our gardens and
orchards after a very short visit in May. While hopping over the
ground catching ants, of which he seems to be inordinately fond, or
flitting actively about the shrubbery after grubs and insects, we may
note his coat of many colors--patchwork in which nearly all the
warbler colors are curiously combined. With drooped wings that often
conceal the bird's chestnut sides, which are his chief distinguishing
mark, and with tail erected like a redstart's, he hunts incessantly.
Here in the garden he is as refreshingly indifferent to your interest
in him as later in his breeding haunts he is shy and distrustful. His
song is bright and animated, like that of the yellow warbler.