OF NEW ENGLAND. Ill 



and the countries beyond ; but, like other migrants, they vary 

 greatl}^ in abundance from year to year in certain places, and 

 are occasionally quite rare in spring near Boston. They usu- 

 ally make their appearance here late in the season, and though 

 I have seen them in the middle of May, they generally do not 

 arrive before the last week of that month, and then remain 

 here, or continue to pass by, throughout the first few days of 

 June. They at that time frequent evergreen and hard-wood 

 trees indifferently, hunting for insects among both the lower 

 and higher branches, and occasionally seizing them in the air. 

 They are less gregarious than in the fall of the year, and one 

 often sees pairs or individuals, much more often than when 

 they are returning, probably because at the time of their spring 

 migrations they are mated for the summer. But a very small 

 proportion of them pass the summer in Northern New Hamp- 

 shire, a larger number being then resident in Northern Maine 

 and the majority in Canada and Labrador. They affect exclu- 

 sively the woods and forests which contain a great many ever- 

 greens, and rarely visit the lightly timbered and more open 

 woodland. They return to Eastern Massachusetts in the last 

 week of September, and are commonly plentiful during a 

 greater part of October. They often frequent pines in prefer- 

 ence to all other trees, generally remain among the upper 

 branches or in the very tree-tops, and spend most of their time 

 in snapping up passing insects, which they sometimes take an 

 opportunity to do, whilst moving from one tree to another. 



(d). The "Black-polls" have soft and loud chips, an un- 

 musical trill, shorter than that of the " Chipper," and three or 

 four notes, suggestive of knocking pebbles together. Their 

 song is monotonous, weak, and unmusical. It resembles the 

 syllables tsi-tsi-tsi-tsi-tsi, repeated in a nearly unvarying tone. 



[EE. Autumnal Warbler. (See Appendix E, family Sylvi- 

 colidce. ) 



I do not propose to occupy much space in discussing the 

 question : — are the Autumnal Warblers mentioned by Wilson, 

 Audubon, and Nuttall, the young of "Black-poll" or of the 



