C. II Merriam — Birds of Connecticut. 19 



middle of April* (April 14, and probably earlier) and departs in Sep- 

 tember (Sept. 29, 1875, Sage). They are so partial to the tree whose 

 name they bear that, in speaking of their habits in the " Pine-barrens" 

 of South Carolina and Georgia, I remarked that "it was very appro- 

 priately named the pirn -creeping warbler, as 1 never, except on one 

 occasion, saw it alight, even for an instant, on anything l m t a pine 

 tree; here it would sit by the hour and warble out its sweet song."f 

 I might also state that at such times it is generally so concealed 

 among the branches that one may not unfrequently spend half an 

 hour in vainly endeavoring to "get a shot" — the bird, meanwhile, 

 uttering, at intervals, its characteristic note, which is not unlike a 

 certain strain in the pleasant and perplexing song of the common 

 field-sparrow (X/>izella pusiUd). On referring to my .MS. notes on 

 the birds of Central Massachusetts, I find the following : "Seldom 

 found except in pine woods, where a few were found breeding on 

 June 25th, 1874." Here, however, though evidently preferring sim- 

 ilar tracts, they may be met with, especially during the migrations, 

 in a variety of situations. In the spring of 1875, for example, they 

 were frequently seen in the City Green hopping about on the ground 

 in company with D. palmarum and the English Sparrows, and run- 

 ning up ami down on the trunks of the huge elms searching for 

 insects. Mr. C. J. Maynard, in his beautiful, but lamentably incom- 

 plete, work on the "Birds of Florida, 11 says: "While walking in 

 the piny woods of Florida one will suddenly observe that the trees 

 over his head are filled with birds, where but a moment before not a 

 living thing was to be seen ; and his ears will be saluted by a variety 

 of sounds. Beside the loud, harsh notes of the woodpeckers and 

 nuthatches, and the mellow whistle of the bluebirds, the slowly 

 given trill of the pine warblers will occasionally be heard. There 

 are hundreds of these little birds in every passing flock, yet but few 

 of them ever sing. They are extremely active, now searching for 

 insects among the swaying foliage of the pines high overhead, then 

 clinging to the brown trunks to peer into the crevices of the bark, or 



alighting on the ground Of all the thousands of this species 



which spend the colder season in Florida but few remain to breed, 

 and by the middle of March the greater portion leave for the North. 

 They arrive in New England in early April, and by the first of May 



* Dr. J. A. Allen stated, in the "New England Farmer" for 1861 (p. 540): " The 

 present year [1861] I observed them the 4th of April, at which time a recent snow 

 covered the ground to the depth of several inches." 



f Am. Nat., vol. viii, No. 1, p. 7. Jan. 1874. 



