Few birds have a wider and more extended range than the Blackpoll Warbler. Wintering in the southern United States, Central America and the northern part of South America, they move northward in the spring, reaching Greenland and Alaska in June. Their range extends to the westward as far as the Rocky Mountains. Their breeding range is nearly confined to the regions north of the United States.

This little bird which travels so extensively is a little later than many of the Warblers in arriving at its summer home but it seems to waste little time on the journey, as it flies rapidly and stops but little to search for food. These words of the poet,

"And warblers, full of life and song
All moving swiftly on their way,"

truthfully illustrate the flight of the Blackpoll in its spring migration.

This species exhibits habits similar to those of the flycatchers and "may be considered as occupying an intermediate station between the flycatchers and warblers, having the manner of the former and the bill partially of the latter." There is no better illustration of the saying that "The nice gradations by which nature passes from one species to another, even in this department of the great chain of beings, will forever baffle all the artificial rules and systems of man."

The Blackpolls are at home not only in the woods but also in the tops of the tallest trees. They prefer those forests that border on water courses or swamps where, flying from branch to branch they quickly catch the winged insects with a snap of their bills not unlike that of the flycatchers. Like the flycatchers, too, the color of their plumage is beautifully adapted to obscuring them in their dark green foliage retreats.

Standing on the very tip of some evergreen tree, "the chaste little figure striped in half mourning and capped in jet black," will burst out in a happy song and then quickly fly into the dark recesses of the forest.

The female shows a strong attachment for her nest and exhibits great anxiety on the approach of any being, "beating her wings along the branches in the utmost distress, or one may still hear her sharp chipping note of alarm as she disappears in the almost impenetrable growth of small black spruce."

The nest is interesting. It is usually placed on a large branch at its junction with the trunk of the tree. A cone-bearing tree is selected and the I spruce is preferred, as in it the nest is more perfectly obscured. The Blackpoll's house is not the delicate structure that one would expect to find as the home of so dainty a bird. This bulky structure is usually placed not higher than six or eight feet from the ground. It is constructed from the fine twigs and sprays of the evergreen trees and fine roots woven with weeds, moss, lichens and vegetable and animal hairs. The lining consists of fine grass and feathers. Though the external diameter of the nest is fully five inches, the internal diameter seldom measures over two inches.

Mr. Langille has beautifully described the song of the Blackpoll. He says,

"That song, though one of the most slender and wiry in all our forests, is as distinguishable as the hum of the cicada or the shrilling of the katydid. Tree-tree-tree-tree-tree-tree-tree-tree, rapidly uttered, the monotonous notes of equal length, beginning very softly, gradually increasing to the middle of the strain and then as gradually diminishing, thus forming a fine musical swell — may convey a fair idea of the song. There is a peculiar soft and tinkling sweetness in this melody, suggestive of the quiet mysteries of the forest and sedative as an anodyne to the nerves."