Page:Birdcraft-1897.djvu/150

  Parula Warbler: Compsothlypis americana.

Blue Yellow-backed Warbler.


 * Length:
 * 4.50 inches.


 * Male and Female:


 * Above slate-blue, triangular spot of greenish yellow back of shoulders. Chin and throat yellow. Wings brownish with two white bars; two white spots on tail. Belly white, reddish brown band across breast. Markings of underparts variable. Bill black above and flesh-coloured below. Feet light. In spring the female closely resembles the male, but lacks the brown wash on breast.


 * Song:
 * Shrill wiry — "Chirr-rirr-irr-reeh." (Nehrling.)


 * Season:
 * April to October.


 * Breeds:
 * Eastern United States and northward.


 * Nest:
 * In swamps where the usnea moss is plentiful, or, at least, never far from water. Nest a delicate structure of filmy moss, suspended from a slender branch.


 * Eggs:
 * 4-5, with reddish spots.


 * Range:
 * Eastern United States, west to the Plains, north to Canada, and south in winter to the West Indies and Central America.

In early May, before the apple trees are in bloom, if you look up among their branches you will see this airy little bird fitting in and out, pausing every moment, head down in Titmouse fashion, then raising its head again to utter its chirping song, and, lifting its wings, seems half to fly, half to be blown from branch to branch.

This is the bird that awakened Burroughs, when a boy, to the unfamiliar birds that lodge in very familiar woods. He writes, under title of "The Invitation," in "Wake Robin": "Years ago, when quite a youth, I was rambling in the woods one Sunday with my brothers, gathering black birch, wintergreens, etc., when, as we reclined upon the ground, gazing vaguely up into the trees, I caught sight of a bird that paused a moment on a branch above me, the like of which I had never before seen or heard of. . . . How the thought of it clung to me afterward! It was a revelation. It was the first intimation I had had that the woods we knew so well, held birds that we knew not at all." 