Vol. 1 



A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 

 DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ of the Audubon Societies 



February, 1899 



No. 1 



In Warbler Time 



BY JOHN BURROUGHS 



*HIS morning, ]\Iay 5, as I walked through the fields 

 the west wind brought to me a sweet, fresh odor, 

 like that of fragrant violets, precisely like that of 

 'm^W'r^^ '- o'-i'^ little white sweet violet (Fi'o/a blanda). I do not 

 ^^4"^^^^ know what it came from, — probably from sugar maples, 

 jf-"*- ^■p;==£_ just shaking out their fringe-like blossoms, — but it was the 

 ^^^-T^-^' first breath of May, and very welcome. April has her 

 odors, too, very delicate and suggestive, but seldom is the 

 wind perfumed with the breath of actual bloom before May. I said 

 it is Warbler time ; the first arrivals of the pretty little migrants 

 should be noted now. Hardly had my thought defined itself when 

 before me, in a little hemlock, I caught the flash of a blue, white- 

 barred wing ; then glimpses of a yellow breast and a yellow crown. 

 I approached cautiously, and in a moment more had a full view of 

 one of our rarer Warblers, the Blue-winged Yellow Warbler. Very 

 pretty he was, too, the yellow cap, the yellow breast, and the black 

 streak through the eye being conspicuous features. He would not 

 stand to be looked at long, but soon disappeared in a near-by tree. 



The Ruby-crowned Kinglet w^as piping in an evergreen tree near 

 by, but him I had been hearing for several days. The Kinglets 

 come before the first Warblers, and may be known to the attentive 

 eye by their quick, nervous movements, and small greenish forms, 

 and to the discerning ear by their hurried, musical, piping strains. 

 How soft, how rapid, how joyous and lyrical their songs are I Very 

 few country people, I imagine, either see them or hear them. The 

 powers of observation of country people are not fine enough and 

 trained enough. They see and hear coarsely. An object must be 

 big and a sound loud, to attract their attention. Have you seen 

 and heard the Kinglet? If not, the finer inner world of nature is 



