(_Helmintherus vermivorus_) Wood Warbler family
_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.