(_Sylvania pusilla_) Wood Warbler family
_Called also_: BLACK-CAP; GREEN BLACK-CAPPED WARBLER;
WILSON'S FLYCATCHER
_Length_--4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch and a half shorter
than the English sparrow.
_Male_--Black cap; yellow forehead; all other upper parts
olive-green; rich yellow underneath.
_Female_--Lacks the black cap.
_Range_--North America, from Alaska and Nova Scotia to Panama.
Winters south of Gulf States. Nests chiefly north of the
United States.
_Migrations_--May. September. Spring and autumn migrant.
To see this strikingly marked little bird one must be on the sharp
lookout for it during the latter half of May, or at the season of
apple bloom, and the early part of September. It passes northward with
an almost scornful rapidity. Audubon mentions having seen it in Maine
at the end of October, but this specimen surely must have been an
exceptional laggard.
In common with several others of its family, it is exceedingly expert
in catching insects on the wing; but it may be known as no true
flycatcher from the conspicuous rich yellow of its under parts, and
also from its habit of returning from a midair sally to a different
perch from the one it left to pursue its dinner. A true flycatcher
usually returns to its old perch after each hunt.
To indulge in this aA"rial chase with success, these warblers select
for their home and hunting ground some low woodland growth where a
sluggish stream attracts myriads of insects to the boggy neighborhood.
Here they build their nest in low bushes or upon the ground. Four or
five grayish eggs, sprinkled with cinnamon-colored spots in a circle
around the larger end, are laid in the grassy cradle in June. Mr. H.
D. Minot found one of these nests on Pike's Peak at an altitude of
11,000 feet, almost at the limit of vegetation. The same authority
compares the bird's song to that of the redstart and the yellow
warbler.
[Illustration: YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOOS THE DAY BEFORE LEAVING NEST.]
[Illustration: FIELD SPARROW BABIES.]