64 state; POMOI.OGICAL SOCIETY. 



on the alert for small bark beetles, boring beetles, and plant lice. 

 Like the woodpecker and black-and-white creeper he sings at 

 his work, and as he eats the young larvae of the gypsy and 

 brown-tail, its song sweet-sweet-sweet-'sweetity-sweet would not 

 seem inappropriate. 



The American redstart is another trunk-loving gleaner whose 

 fly-catching proclivities are So well developed that nothing 

 escapes it. It delights in hairy caterpillars, moths, and beetles 

 that would otherwise live to defoliate our orchards and destroy 

 our fruit. It forages from ground to tree-top, holding its wings 

 in readiness for instant attack upon every moving insect. It is 

 one of our most beautiful and trusting birds and has a sweet 

 and varied song. Chapman says that in Cuba where most of 

 our warblers winter, they are known as "butterflies," but the 

 redstart's flaming plumage has won for it the name of "can- 

 delita," the "httle torch." 



The black-throated green warbler is another frequenter of 

 the trunks of trees, though most of its work is confined to the 

 area covered by the branches. Its food consists of a variety of 

 small insects including several injurious caterpillars, curculios, 

 beetles, and bugs. The stomachs of five birds taken in Nebraska 

 contained 220 insects, an average of 44 to each bird. Seventy 

 per cent of the food of one Illinois specimen consisted of canker 

 worms. Like the black-and-white creeper, the black-throated 

 green is a species dear to the heart of the young naturalist, and 

 its characteristic song is early learned. Bradford Torrey trans- 

 lates it as "Trees, trees, murmuring trees," but to me it seems 

 to say, "Cheese, cheese, a little more cheese." I have never 

 heard any wild bird sing an articulate word, and probably no 

 two people hearing the same bird for the first time would write 

 its song with the same words. But if suitable words can be 

 found to interpret birds' notes, it is wonderful how it enables 

 the listener to distinguish difl'erent species in a multitude of 

 songs. 



One of our best known bird songs is that of the white-throated 

 sparrow, yet every author writes it differently. I was tempted 

 to say one of our best known birds, but a long experience as a 

 teacher of nature studies has convinced me that while nearly 

 every one knows the song of the white-throat, very few persons 

 really know the bird. The Indian name, says Wm. J. Long, is 



