FEATHERED GEMS 



did not see any, and probably they had mostly migrated 

 beyond us. The last of all the tribe to appear is the 

 Black-poll Warbler. It looks a little like the Black 

 and White Warbler, but is different enough, and has 

 none of the "creeper" habits, keeping in the foliage 

 pretty well up and droning out a lisping little ditty. 

 We usually have it lingering till the last of May or the 

 first of June, and in the tardy season of 1907 it remained 

 at least till June 12th. Both the INIourning and Con- 

 necticut Warblers are rare; they are found, like their 

 nearest "Swamp- Warbler" relatives — as certain scien- 

 tists have classed them — mostly on or near the ground, 

 and they are easily confused, as both are much alike, 

 with dark ashy throat-patch. A careful reading of the 

 descriptions in the Manuals is advisable to fix in mind 

 their points of difference. Then there is the Pine 

 Warbler, the bird with dull, plain yellow breast which 

 runs creeper-like over the trunks and branches of pines, 

 especially the yellow or pitch pine, in regions of poor 

 and sandy soil. With it we may think of the Prairie 

 Warbler, which is likewise locally distributed, in scrubby 

 and bushy tracts, an inconspicuous little fellow, and, in 

 my experience, rather hard to find, unless one is in a 

 region that they have chosen as a center of abundance. 

 Even less conspicuous is the Blue-winged Warbler, 

 which somewhat resembles the Yellow Warbler, but has 

 grayish or ashy wings. It is fond of the edge of woods, 

 and usually is far from common. Where I live they 

 are more apt to be seen in August, after the breeding 



213 



