(_Dendroica vigorsii_) Wood Warbler family
_Called also_: PINE-CREEPING WARBLER
_Length_--5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English
sparrow.
_Male_--Yellowish olive above; clear yellow below, shading to
grayish white, with obscure dark streaks on side of breast.
Two whitish wing-bars; two outer tail feathers partly white.
_Female_--Duller; grayish white only faintly tinged with
yellow underneath.
_Range_--North America, east of the Rockies; north to
Manitoba, and south to Florida and the Bahamas. Winters from
southern Illinois southward.
_Migrations_--March or April. October or later. Common summer
resident.
The pine warbler closely presses the myrtle warbler for the first
place in the ranks of the family migrants, but as the latter bird
often stays north all winter, it is usually given the palm. Here is a
warbler, let it be recorded, that is fittingly named, for it is a
denizen of pine woods only; most common in the long stretches of pine
forests at the south and in New York and New England, and
correspondingly uncommon wherever the woods-man's axe has laid the
pine trees low throughout its range. Its "simple, sweet, and drowsy
song," writes Mr. Parkhurst, is always associated "with the smell of
pines on a sultry day." It recalls that of the junco and the social
sparrow or chippy.
Creeping over the bark of trees and peering into every crevice like a
nuthatch; running along the limbs, not often hopping nervously or
flitting like the warblers; darting into the air for a passing insect,
or descending to the ground to feed on seeds and berries, the pine
warbler has, by a curious combination, the movements that seem to
characterize several different birds.
It is one of the largest and hardiest members of its family, but not
remarkable for its beauty. It is a sociable traveller, cheerfully
escorting other warblers northward, and welcoming to its band both the
yellow redpolls and the myrtle warblers. These birds are very often
seen together in the pine and other evergreen trees in our lawns and
in the large city parks.