WARBLERS. 125 



winter in the South, and consequently appear in Massachusetts 

 as migrants only. They are usually common near Boston 

 in the latter part of April and the first week of May, as 

 well as in the latter part of September and sometimes the 

 earlier part of October. Their favorite haunts are swamps and 

 their neighborhoods, but they also frequent " scrub," hedge- 

 rows, plowed lands, gardens, and orchards. They almost 

 invariably gather in loose flocks, and often associate with 

 other Warblers, and with various Sparrows. They are much 

 more terrestrial in their habits than any of their immediate 

 relations (i. e., the Dendroicoe) and always are on or not 

 very far from the ground. They fly quite gracefully, and are 

 nimble when on the ground or when moving from branch 

 to branch in a bush or tree. Their most noticeable habit, 

 and the one which best distinguishes them from the rest of 

 their family, is that of flirting their tails, almost exactly as 

 the common Pewee does. They do this particularly when 

 on their perches, from which they often fly directly to the 

 ground to seize some small insect or seed which, while perched 

 above, they have spied in the grass, or perhaps on the bare 

 earth. 



As I have mentioned the food of this species, perhaps it 

 will not be amiss to speak of that of this large family in gen- 

 eral, the Warblers, and of their usefulness to man. Though 

 certain kinds often eat seeds (generally those of the pine or of 

 weeds), and others partake of small berries in spring and au- 

 tumn^ a majority feed exclusively upon insects. These insects 

 include the smaller caterpillars, various small winged insects, 

 in one case particularly those insects which infest the bark of 

 trees, and which the Nuthatches do so much to exterminate, 

 and, more generally, those which frequent the foliage and blos- 

 soms, epecially at the time of the spring migrations. They 

 often include, moreover, spiders, but rarely the beetles ; in the 

 destruction of the latter, larger birds are more efficacious. 

 Thus, though many Warblers are neutral in regard to the agri- 

 cultural, and what are often considered the most important, 

 interests of man, none, so far as I know, do him any injury, 

 whereas many greatly benefit him in the preservation of our 



