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WARBLER

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 317 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WARBLER , in See also:

ornithology, the name bestowed in 1773 by T. See also:Pennant (Genera of Birds, p. 35) on the birds removed, in r 769, by J. A. Scopoli from the Linnaean genus Motacilla (cf. See also:WAGTAIL) to one founded and called by him Sylvia—the last being a word employed by several of the older writers in an indefinite way—that is to say, on all the See also:species of Motacilla which were not wagtails. " Warbler " has See also:long been used by See also:English technical writers as the See also:equivalent of Sylvia, and is now applied to all members of the sub-See also:family Sylviinae of the thrushes (q.v.), and in the See also:combination " See also:American warblers " to the distinct passerine family Mniotiltidae. The true warblers (Sylviinae) are generally smaller than the true thrushes Turdinae (see T1rRusxEs), with, for the most See also:part, a weak and slender See also:bill. They seldom See also:fly far, except when migrating, but frequent undergrowth and herbage, living on See also:insects, larvae and See also:fruit. The See also:song is unusually clear and very sweet, with frequently a metallic See also:sound, as in the See also:grasshopper warbler. The See also:nest is usually See also:cup-shaped and well lined, and from three to six eggs (twelve in See also:Regulus) , usually spotted, are laid. The true warblers are chiefly Old See also:World, visiting the See also:southern Old World in See also:winter, but members of the sub-family occur in New See also:Zealand, See also:Polynesia and See also:Panama.

Amongst the commonest in See also:

England is the well-known sedge-See also:bird or sedge-warbler, Acrocephalus schoenobaenus, whose chattering song resounds in summer-See also:time from almost every wet ditch in most parts of See also:Britain. As is the See also:case with so many of its See also:allies, the skulking habits of the bird cause it to be far more often heard than seen; but, with a little See also:patience, it may be generally observed flitting about the uppermost twigs of the bushes it frequents, and its mottled back and the yellowish-See also:white streak over its See also:eye serve to distinguish it from its ally the See also:reed-See also:wren or reed-warbler, A. sire perils, which is clad in a wholly See also:mouse-coloured suit. But this last can also be recognized by its different song, and comparatively seldom does it stray from the reed-beds which are its favourite haunts. In them generally it builds one of the most beautiful of nests, made of the See also:seed-branches of the reed and long grass, See also:wound horizontally See also:round and round so as to include in its substance the living stems of three or four reeds, between which it is suspended at a convenient height above the See also:water, and the structure is so deep that the eggs do not See also:roll out when its props are shaken by the See also:wind. Of very similar habits is the reed-See also:thrush or See also:great reed-warbler, A. arundinaceus, a loud-voiced species, abundant on the See also:Continent but very rarely straying to England. Much See also:interest also attaches to the species known as See also:Savi's warbler, Locustella lusciniaides, which was only recognized as a See also:constant inhabitant of the Fen See also:district of England a few years before its haunts were destroyed by drainage. The last example known to have been obtained in this See also:country was killed in 1856. The nest of this species is See also:peculiar, placed on the ground and formed of the See also:blades of a species of Glyceria so skilfully entwined as to be a very permanent structure, and it is a curious fact that its nests were well known to the sedge-cutters of the district which it most frequented, as those of a bird with which they were unacquainted, long before the builder was recognized by naturalists. In coloration the bird somewhat resembles a See also:nightingale (whence its specific name), and its song differs from that of any of those before mentioned, being a long smooth trill, pitched higher but possessing more See also:tone than that of the grasshopper-warbler Locustella See also:naevius—which is a widely-distributed species throughout the See also:British Isles, not only limited to marshy sites, but affecting also dry soils, inhabiting indifferently many kinds of places where there is tangled and thick herbage, heather or brushwood. In those parts of England where it was formerly most abundant it was known as the reeler or See also:reel-bird, from its song resembling the whirring See also:noise of the reel at one time used by the spinners of See also:wool. The precise determination of this bird—the grasshopper See also:lark, as it was long called in books, thoughits notes if once heard can never be mistaken for those of a grass-hopper or See also:cricket, and it has no See also:affinity to the larks—as an English species is due to the discernment of See also:Gilbert White in 1768. In its habits it is one of the most retiring of birds, keeping in the closest shelter, so that it may be within a very See also:short distance of an eager naturalist without his being able to see it—the See also:olive-See also:colour, streaked with dark See also:brown, of its upper plumage helping to make it invisible.

The nest is very artfully concealed in the thickest herbage. The See also:

foreign forms of aquatic warblers are far too numerous to be here mentioned. The members of the typical genus Sylvia, which includes some of the sweetest singers, are treated of under See also:WHITETHROAT; and the See also:willow- and See also:wood-wrens under WREN. The Australian genus Malurus, to which belong the birds known as " superb warblers," not inaptly so named, since in beauty they surpass any others of their presumed allies, is now placed in with the Old World fly-catchers in the family Musicapidae. Part of the plumage of the cocks in breeding-See also:dress is generally some shade of intense See also:blue, and is so glossy as to resemble See also:enamel, while See also:black, white, See also:chestnut or See also:scarlet, as well as See also:green and See also:lilac, are also See also:present in one species or another, so as to heighten the effect. But, as already stated, there are systematists who would raise this genus, which contains some 15 species, to the See also:rank of a distinct family, though on what grounds it is hard to say. The birds known as " American warblers," forming what is now recognized as a distinct family, Mniotiltidae, remain for See also:consideration. They possess but nine instead of ten primaries, and are peculiar to the New World. More than 130 species have been described, and these have been grouped in 20 genera or more, of which members of all but three are at least summer-visitants to See also:North See also:America. As a whole they are much more brightly coloured than the Sylviinae, for, though the particular genus Mniotilta (from which the family takes its name) is one of the most abnormal—its See also:colours being See also:plain black and white, and its habits rather resembling those of a See also:Tree-creeper (q.v.)—in other See also:groups chestnut, bluish-See also:grey and green appear, the last varying from an olive to a See also:saffron tint, and in some groups the yellow predominates to an extent that has gained for its wearers, belonging to the genus Dendroeca, the name of See also:golden " warblers. In the genus Setophaga, the members of which deserve to be called " fly-catching " warblers, the plumage of the See also:males at least presents yellow, See also:orange, scarlet or See also:crimson. The Mniotiltidae contain forms exhibiting quite as many diverse modes of See also:life as do the Sylviinae.

Some are exclusively aquatic in their predilections, others affect dry soils, brushwood, forests and so on. Almost all the genera are essentially migratory, but a large proportion of the species of Dendroeca, Setophaga, and especially Basileuterus, seem never to leave their Neotropical See also:

home; while the genera Leucopeza, Teretristis and Microligia, comprising in all but 5 species, are peculiar to the See also:Antilles. The See also:rest are for the most part natives of North America, where a few attain a very high See also:latitude,' penetrating in summer even beyond the See also:Arctic Circle, and thence migrate southward at the end of summer or in the fall of the See also:year, some reaching See also:Peru and See also:Brazil, but a few, as, for instance, Parula pitiayumi and Geothlypis velata, seem to be See also:resident in the country last named. (A.

End of Article: WARBLER

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