(_Sylvania canadensis_) Wood Warbler family
_Called also_: CANADIAN FLYCATCHER; SPOTTED CANADIAN WARBLER
_Length_--5 to 5.6 inches. About an inch shorter than the
English sparrow.
_Male_--Immaculate bluish ash above, without marks on wings or
tail; crown spotted with arrow-shaped black marks. Cheeks,
line from bill to eye, and underneath clear yellow. Black
streaks forming a necklace across the breast.
_Female_--Paler, with necklace indistinct.
_Range_--North America, from Manitoba and Labrador to tropics.
_Migrations_---May. September. Summer resident; most abundant
in migrations.
Since about one-third of all the song-birds met with in a year's
rambles are apt to be warblers, the novice cannot devote his first
attention to a better group, confusing though it is by reason of its
size and the repetition of the same colors in so many bewildering
combinations. Monotony, however, is unknown in the warbler family.
Whoever can rightly name every warbler, male and female, on sight is
uniquely accomplished.
The jet necklace worn on this bird's breast is its best mark of
identification. Its form is particularly slender and graceful, as
might be expected in a bird so active, one to whom a hundred tiny
insects barely afford a dinner that must often be caught piecemeal as
it flies past. To satisfy its appetite, which cannot but be dainty in
so thoroughly charming a bird, it lives in low, boggy woods, in such
retreats as Wilson's black-capped warbler selects for a like reason.
Neither of these two "flycatcher" warblers depends altogether on
catching insects on the wing; countless thousands are picked off the
under sides of leaves and about the stems of twigs in true warbler
fashion.
The Canadian's song is particularly loud, sweet, and vivacious. It is
hazardous for any one without long field practice to try to name any
warbler by its song alone, but possibly this one's animated music is
as characteristic as any.
The nest is built on the ground on a mossy bank or elevated into the
root crannies of some large tree, where there is much water in the
woods. Bits of bark, dead wood, moss, and fine rootlets, all carefully
wrapped with leaves, go to make the pretty cradle. Unhappily, the
little Canada warblers are often cheated out of their natural rights,
like so many other delightful song-birds, by the greedy interloper
that the cowbird deposits in their nest.