"Very pleasant in my garden. May 1832." — This sentence in pencil was written by my father in a copy of Nuttall's Ornithology. In those days this was considered one of the rarest of the Warblers but I could repeat the remark nearly every year since I have lived here in the Taconic Hills, for CHESTNUTSIDES are among the commonest and tamest of the birds frequenting this vicinity. A pair has built for three years in succession in a patch of wild raspberry bushes within a few feet of the front porch. They are members of the School of Philosophy which successfully teaches how to be happy and I am sure that all major in this study. They have a self-contained air of content and are far less restless than most members of the family.
Eastern North America, north to Newfoundland, central Ontario and northwestern Manitoba: west to the Great Plains.