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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: VIR-WAT |
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WARBLER , in ornithology, the name bestowed in 1773 by T. Pennant (Genera of Birds, p. 35) on the birds removed, in r 769, by J. A. Scopoli from the Linnaean genus Motacilla (cf. WAGTAIL) to one founded and called by him Sylviathe last being a word employed by several of the older writers in an indefinite waythat is to say, on all the species of Motacilla which were not wagtails. " Warbler " has long been used by English technical writers as the equivalent of Sylvia, and is now applied to all members of the sub-family Sylviinae of the thrushes (q.v.), and in the combination " 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 part, a weak and slender bill. They seldom fly far, except when migrating, but frequent undergrowth and herbage, living on insects, larvae and fruit. The song is unusually clear and very sweet, with frequently a metallic sound, as in the grasshopper warbler. The nest is usually cup-shaped and well lined, and from three to six eggs (twelve in Regulus) , usually spotted, are laid. The true warblers are chiefly Old World, visiting the southern Old World in winter, but members of the sub-family occur in New Zealand, Polynesia and Panama. Amongst the commonest in England is the well-known sedge-bird or sedge-warbler, Acrocephalus schoenobaenus, whose chattering song resounds in summer-time from almost every wet ditch in most parts of Britain. As is the case with so many of its allies, the skulking habits of the bird cause it to be far more often heard than seen; but, with a little patience, it may be generally observed flitting about the uppermost twigs of the bushes it frequents, and its mottled back and the yellowish-white streak over its eye serve to distinguish it from its ally the reed-wren or reed-warbler, A. sire perils, which is clad in a wholly 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 seed-branches of the reed and long grass, wound horizontally 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 water, and the structure is so deep that the eggs do not roll out when its props are shaken by the wind. Of very similar habits is the reed-thrush or great
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The members of the typical genus Sylvia, which includes some of the sweetest singers, are treated of under WHITETHROAT; and the willow- and wood
lilac
The birds known as " American warblers," forming what is now recognized as a distinct family, Mniotiltidae, remain for 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 North 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 abnormalits colours being plain black and white, and its habits rather resembling those of a Tree-creeper (q.v.)in other groups chestnut, bluish-grey and green appear, the last varying from an olive to a 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 golden " warblers. In the genus Setophaga, the members of which deserve to be called " fly-catching " warblers, the plumage of the males at least presents yellow, orange, scarlet or crimson. The Mniotiltidae contain forms exhibiting quite as many diverse modes of 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 home ; while the genera Leucopeza, Teretristis and Microligia, comprising in all but 5 species, are peculiar to the Antilles. The rest are for the most part natives of North America, where a few attain a very high latitude
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