^ SPRING AT THE CAPITAL 141 



The barn swallow is heard first, followed in a day 

 or two by the squeaking of the cliff swallow. The 

 chimney swallows, or swifts, are not far behind, and 

 remain here, in large numbers, the whole season. 

 The purple martins appear in April, as they pass 

 north, and again in July and August on their re- 

 turn, accompanied by their young. 



The national capital is situated in such a vast 

 spread of wild, Avooded, or semi-cultivated country, 

 and is in itself so open and spacious, with its parks 

 and large government reservations, that an unusual 

 number of birds find their way into it in the course 

 of the season. Rare warblers, as the black- poll, 

 the yellow red-poll, and the bay-breasted, pausing 

 in May on their northward journey, pursue their 

 insect game in the very heart of the town. 



I have heard the veery thrush in the trees near 

 the White House; and one rainy April morning, 

 about six o'clock, he came and blew his soft, mel- 

 low flute in a pear-tree in my garden. The tones 

 had all the sweetness and wildness they have when 

 heard in June in our deep northern forests. A 

 day or two afterward, in the same tree, I heard for 

 the first time the song of the ruby-crowned wren, 

 or kinglet, — the same liquid bubble and cadence 

 which characterize the wren-songs generally, but 

 much finer and more delicate than the song of any 

 other variety known to me; beginning in a fine, 

 round, needle-like note, and rising into a full, sus- 

 tained warble, — a strain, on the whole, remarkably 

 exquisite and pleasing, the singer being all the 



