134 Bird - Lore 



bright black eye, and who left me on March 20; the White-throated Sparrows, 

 who came about November 1, in a great flock, and who made the bare woods 

 cheerful all winter with their 'Peabody' song, and their high-pitched chirp, and 

 who stayed with me until April 25; and the Ruby-crowned Kinglet, whom I 

 found first on Christmas Day, a warm mellow day full of golden sunshine, and 

 who was, from then on until April 24, an almost daily companion, beginning 

 on March 20 to sing his wonderfully melodious and complex little song. 



The birds that have come from the South to summer with me and raise 

 their families in my woods are the Hooded Warbler, who reiterated his 'Where 

 in the world is he?' from morning till night during late April and early May, 

 the Wood Thrush, most beautiful of the summer singers, the Catbird, Red- 

 eyed Vireo, Orchard Oriole, Crested Flycatcher, and Wood Pewee. 



Aside from these twenty-one birds, my guests have been either transients 

 or migrants. Thirty varieties that nest within the state have visited me, 

 sometimes once, sometimes repeatedly. The tiny Carolina Chickadee comes 

 often, the Mourning Dove joins the Wood Thrush in early song, and the Barn 

 Swallow circles at twilight over the oak tops. A Red-shouldered Hawk swooped 

 down one day and in spite of his good reputation for preferring rodents to 

 feathered prey, grabbed one of my Tufted Titmice, and, perching on a high 

 branch, tore him to pieces before my very eyes, throwing the head and feathers 

 down to me as proof of his indifference to my opinions, as well as his contempt 

 for the five Jays that were trying noisily to drive him off. The Downy Wood- 

 pecker often comes during the summer and winter and the Field Sparrow has 

 been a visitor during spring and summer. 



Occasional visitors have been the Screech Owl, Quail, Summer Tanager, 

 Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Hummingbird, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, most 

 alluring of tiny birds, with his dashing ways, angrily snapping bill, and sweet, 

 faint song. 'Brer' Turkey Buzzard has often wheeled overhead, but Jim 

 Crow has come only once. The White-breasted Nuthatch has tried half a 

 dozen trees and left, the Red-cockaded and the Red-bellied Woodpeckers have 

 each made one memorable visit. The Yellow-throated, the White-eyed, and 

 the Warbling Vireos have each spent a week-end with their Red-eyed cousin, 

 who lives with me during the summer, while the Robins, loved of New Eng- 

 enders, came between February 23 and March 15, in flocks of from twenty- 

 five to fifty, spending the night in my woods, and giving me their hearty, 

 flute-like caroling before they flew away toward the north and northeast. I 

 have seen Robins during the summer in other parts of the city but none built 

 in my woods. 



Of the Warblers that nest in Georgia, there have visited me often the Parula 

 (southern variety) and the Yellow-throated, and occasionally the Pine, the 

 Black- throated Green, the Prairie, the Golden-winged and the Blue- winged. 

 I have seen the Black-and- White Warbler three times in April, three times in 

 June after the nth, and repeatedly in August and September. The Redstart 



