Show of Doors in the West fetches of Natural History in the Rocky Mountain Plateau Edited by J. H. Nature Study In the University of Utah Ways of Other Warblers In from Lecture by Claude T. Barnes mm I hear the sing- J through the woods pP see the flowers looming through the Gee of early summer pleasure the heather in full where the lilies and the roses V The American Translation from Gottfried von The bright-bloomed i of Europe we do the fragrant bloom of the a W and the bright yellow tie Oregon grape a holly-liko a similar position the spring delights of our Other warblers of the Rocky region more or less careful were Aed by Claude T. Barnes in cent address before the nature classes at the Partly from Barnes's valuable notes and partly from other the following account of species less common than those described in article has been prepared by the The concluding notes on the food and nesting habits of the warblers are taken solely from the address of our careful Rocky Mountain or Virginia The Virginia warbler is a small grayish green under inches in the Wasatch It has a concealed chestnut patch on the a white ring around the under parts dull with chest and throat usually There is also some bright yellowish green at the base of the The coloring of the Jemale is These little birds keep to the underbrush among and in migra- and are almost continually on the says very musical ing the nesting uttering his sweet little ditty continually as he skips through the bushes in search of his morning having satisfied his he mounts the top of some tree in the neighborhood of his nest and at regular intervals a song of remarkable for si bird of such minute The song is wit a wit wit Though these birds stop in the underbrush during they may be found in forest trees during They are and The nest is loosely of rootlets and and placed on the ground under a bush or tuft of Western or Hermit Another little known member of this family that breeds in the high mountains of the northern half of the and migrates to is the hermit or western It a bright yellow color on the sides and top of the the crown and throat the rest of the under parts or streaked on rest of the upper parts tinged olive green and streaked with black wings and tail wings crossed by two white tail with two outer pairs of feathers largely It is a frequenter of the 1 Its rather weak song Barlow represents He adds that this will often mount to the branches of the pines' by successive much after the manner of the blue It seems to abide mostly on the-western ranges of the The hermit has no black whatever about the head and nor any black streaks on the but the wings have two bars of the Townsend It is confined to the warbler is a reticent little best lo- by its song and distinguished by the bluish slate throat and The throat of the is grayish This bird is said by Bailey to be one of the commonest western It frequents the chaparral and especially near at all The throat breast are slate throat feathers edged with rest of underpays lores deep eyelids with distinct back olive tinged with The female can be known only by the more slender bill and the more rounded These are from to inches in They solitary and wary gliding through the densest thickets in a cautious and suspicious At midday the male may perch high upon a dead twig and warble a pleasant and sprightly They keep near the gleaning their insect food among the aud there they usually build their but sometimes on the mountain sides in open found these warblers in great June in Parley's among the He says the species inhabits exclusively the brushwood along the streams of mountain ravines and Among the weeds in localities numerous nests were In no case were they on the though often near being fixed between upright stalks of in a about one to two feet above the Black Throated Gray This is a quiet little warbler of general gray and from to inches- It frequents the lower growth at moderate mostly toward the west of the Great and is often found among scrub It is from its the black gray It arrives in preferring high and dry and migrates to Mexico in late The sexes are The whole throat and chest with white streaks on the sides of the head and along the also a bright yellow spot over the breast and belly are pure the sides are streaked with black back wings with two white tail with inner webs of outer tail feathers mainly somewhat like the chickadee in This species is quite unlike any of the other western wood the yellow spot before the eye is the only mark of this color it Its warble is feeble and but soothing to the The nests are placed in the forks of and it is said that the male and female scold each other while The American Ridgway reported this well known eastern species common as far west the Great Salt where he found it nesting among the willow thickets of the river placed among the as an excellent it clearly has a good right to be it is yet also a true flycatcher in habits and It is a active ever on the and continually in pursuit of In this pursuit it never awaits the approach of its espying them in the darts with great velocity in and the continued clicks of its bill attest the rapidity and frequency with which it will overtake and catch insect after Its notes are a varied Its common habit is to glide along a between its smaller at times darting forth into more open spaces in quest of insects it has Its flight is easy and As it it is continually opening or flirting from side to side its conspicuous the spots in its expanded feathers constantly appearing and N. A- The prevailing color is with a bluish gloss belly and under tail coverts white salmon red patches on the sides of the wings and The female is grayish olive where the male is The size is about 5 to The built usually in 7 to feet from the is and made largely of plant fibers and Eggs are 3 to greenish or spotted with brown and The male is easily recognized by his shiny black with salmon red on each side of the tail and red on the outer edge of the resembling the red winged black- but much Orange Crowned The orange crowned warbler is dull olive tinged with gray It has a dull orange crown partly concealed by grayish and a yellow ring about the Under parts are dull indistinctly The f but Hi This warbler breeds tV-the Rocky grates southward in f the Wasatch mou J Barnes it prefers J J It nests the among clumps of are spotted reddish I f The song is a rie fl trills uttered in a spirit f and abruptly ending 81 The red crown 2 the mark distinguishing this 1 from its i Townsend A bird of quick I inches' in founds tops of firs and r and throat are low and malar ts bordering the olive green the black in the center in arrow tX Breast is bright jt fading to white on L and tail fuscous or t with two white bill blackish horn These li are difficult to observe Their Nesting No less than nineteen fifty-five North American biers nest on the and teen more nest within of the Color of Bird in Relation to 1 There is in general a refo between the color of the hM the character of its nesting The terrestrial species might as dull while those which nest in the to are of striking Nest in Tree On the though visited the nest is safer than on the ground visited by predaceouS and Constructed by The warbler's nest is constructed by the accompaniment of the Occasionally- the fp permitted to bring a bit ing though he w takes part in its Male and J The male pine warbler upon the the males do not assist m B Period jf incubation is from twelve for by both nest at end feT ten Usually on is m Songs of Warblers V. a purely musical point of 1 warblers as a family take frank as Voices of even least gifted among them so potently an appeal to as of the past are to the enjoyment of the They may- not startle us as the- the ag do the Vireos or even but leave a the cheer and seems in the warbler 's simple- The of the long tailed the warblers a place leading song Help to pt the warblers great with their songs these active tree one in-a hundred of which can be seen No- their songs of any value it merely I made a classification which may be bf in the 1 Warblers which while Loud whistled long tailed not loud whistled which sing while of the or with whistled warbler and American warblers whose songs possess suggest- irig the- of the chipping sparrow Virginia's Audubon's warblers notes have pronounced warblers' with thin or wiry song s with a flight tailed chat and western yellow Musical proficiency might be expected from the agreeably suggestive name of the warbler but as a rule the warbler's singing is rather more quaint and curious than very skillfully modulated or highly Food of per cent of the food of wood of For preservation the man is indebted- the A single species of insect may much for man to cope w-ith when it infests his The wild animals and venomous serpents of the woods he may in- spite all his insects dangerous-to human life or destructive to still the f A Packard over species of insects- that feed upon our for Warblers are the for them mainly- is the care of the live in coniferous by a single de commonly c are of leaf destroyers they form a great part of of which-feed to their young as never receive credit for the good they do because the insects that they eat are mainly of small he majority of the large taken by them being infancy before have worked noticeable Destroy Leaf Among- the favorite caterpillars eaten by-warblers are those of the or leaf the birds expert in taking them from their of concealment in the rolled up The little case-bearing which times so J injurious- shade-and forest eaten by larvae of the night flying moths which include the army-worm and are not so eaten There are some caterpillars which are-supposed- to a certain immunity from the ravages of either because they are protected by spines covered with or secrete acrid or other distasteful or poisonous matter which renders them unfit for The families of silk spinning formerly collectively known as the include a number of insects injurious to Though the larvae of these insects are hairy they are destroyed by for the hairs and disagreeable spines are not sufficiently strong to be much of a The warblers appear just at the right time to destroy the larvae by Grasshoppers and Here in Utah the warblers feed largely on grasshoppers during when the more tasty food is becoming The bugs that are found so often on berry bushes not notwithstanding their rank which is well known to all who pick raspberries and The eggs of bugs are also The or plant lice and their eggs are also eaten by Forest The warblers sometimes eat beetles how- are usually only slightly The useful ladybug apparently is seldom The tiger the larger ground are much by the Bark beetles and other injurious boring beetles are freely paten the These beetles often completely defoliate a In the warblers destroy canker click beetles and also leaf eating In addition to the insect some and snails are Spiders are but if one walk over the meadows after a storm and note the spiders' webs scattered one-sees the necessity of keeping them jin Injurious caddice flies and May flies are eaten by Only the warblers that winter in the colder regions eat I On warblers may be j as Jn their migrations they form a. sort of aerial whose function is to put down uprisings of injurious is no time like When life's alive in Before new nestlings Before cleft swallows speed their journey back Along the trackless Christina daisies and violets And lady-smocks all silver of yellow Do paint the meadows with Love's Labor Scene |