(_Dendroica blackburniA|_) Wood Warbler family
_Called also_: HEMLOCK WARBLER; ORANGE-THROATED WARBLER;
TORCH-BIRD
_Length_--4.5 to 5.5 inches. An inch and a half smaller than
the English sparrow.
_Male_--Head black, striped with orange-flame; throat and
breast orange, shading through yellow to white underneath;
wings, tail, and part of back black, with white markings.
_Female_--Olive-brown above, shading into yellow on breast,
and paler under parts.
_Range_--Eastern North America to plains. Winters in tropics.
_Migrations_--May. September. Spring and autumn migrant.
"The orange-throated warbler would seem to be his right name, his
characteristic cognomen," says John Burroughs, in ever-delightful
"Wake Robin"; "but no, he is doomed to wear the name of some
discoverer, perhaps the first who robbed his nest or rifled him of his
mate--Blackburn; hence, Blackburnian warbler. The _burn_ seems
appropriate enough, for in these dark evergreens his throat and breast
show like flame. He has a very fine warble, suggesting that of the
redstart, but not especially musical."
No foliage is dense enough to hide, and no autumnal tint too brilliant
to outshine this luminous little bird that in May, as it migrates
northward to its nesting ground, darts in and out of the leafy shadows
like a tongue of fire.
It is by far the most glorious of all the warblers--a sort of
diminutive oriole. The quiet-colored little mate flits about after
him, apparently lost in admiration of his fine feathers and the ease
with which his thin tenor voice can end his lover's warble in a high
Z.
Take a good look at this attractive couple, for in May they leave us
to build a nest of bark and moss in the evergreens of Canada--that
paradise for warblers--or of the Catskills and Adirondacks, and in
autumn they hurry south to escape the first frosts.