THE BLACK-POLL WARBLER. 489 



and its near relative, the Water Thrush (S. novehm'acensis), 

 i^ at home in the bogs and swamps. 



THE BLACK-POLL WARBLER. 



I do not remember hearing the Black-poll {D. striata) on 

 the main-land of the peninsula, but on the Mud and Seal 

 Islands, about fifteen miles out at sea, nearly in range with 

 the county-line between Yarmouth and Shelburn counties, 

 they are positively abundant throughout the breeding season 

 — so abundant that, while wandering among the evergreens, 

 one is at no time out of the reach of their song, and often 

 several can be heard at once. That song, though one of 

 the most slender and wiry in all our forests, is as distin- 

 guishable as the hum of the Cicada or the shrilling of the 

 Katydid. Tree-tree-tree-ti-ee-tree-tree-tree-tree^ rapidly uttered, 

 the monotonous notes of equal length, beginning very 

 softly, gradually increasing to the middle of the strain, 

 and then as gradually diminishing, thus forming a fine 

 musical swell — may convey a fair idea of the song. There 

 is a peculiar soft and tinkling sweetness in this melody, sug- 

 gestive of the quiet mysteries of the forest, and sedative as 

 an anodyne to the nerves. The chaste little figure striped 

 in half mourning and capped in jet-black, every now and 

 then reaches the tip-top of some evergreen, stretches him- 

 self up in song in full sight, and then darts into the thicket. 

 As one nears the nest, the female may be seen beating her 

 wings along the branches in the utmost distress, or one 

 may still hear her sharp chipping note of alarm as she dis- 

 appears in the almost impenetrable growth of small black 

 spruce. The nest is very uniquely placed. Generally within 

 reach from the ground, often quite low and on a limb 

 against the trunk of a small tree, it is a bulky structure, 

 about five inches in external and two in internal diameter. 



