6 JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



home rather crestfallen. I had seen and heard just enough to be 

 tantalizing, but concluded that in all probability it was the last of 

 my new bird. However, I immediately began to look it up, and to 

 wish a more experienced eye than mine could have seen it. What- 

 ever authority I consulted, no description seemed to fit the bird Init 

 that of the Carolina Wren, yet all remarked it to be rare and very 

 uncommon in Maine. 



For two succeeding mornings, to my surprise, at about the 

 same hour of the day, and in the same locality, I heard the rich 

 voice, but each time it moved toward Underwood without being 

 seen. On several occasions, about the middle of September, its song 

 was heard, but nothing more was known of the bird till September 

 22nd. On that day. Town Lranding and Underwood were thronged 

 with innumerable birds. I have never seen a greater number to- 

 gether. There were hosts of Robins, Cedar Waxwings, Sparrows of 

 several species, Thrushes, Flycatchers, Warblers, Vireos, Finches, 

 Nuthatches, Kinglets, Brown Creepers, Woodpeckers, Chickadees 

 and others, all, apparently, on the verge of insanity. Certainly, to 

 say the least, I have never seen a more active or social company. 

 My cottage was surrounded by this band of migrants, many 

 attracted, undoubtedly, by two fruit-ladened, black cherry trees. 

 As I took my glass and quietly stepped to the door to watch them, 

 the first to greet my eyes was my Carolina Wren, not three feet from 

 me, all by himself for a few seconds. He was inquisitively inspecting 

 my steps, bobbing about and gesticulating wildly with his expres- 

 sive tail, and though every movement was like a flash, yet he re- 

 mained quiet long enough to give me a great opportunity to note 

 his every marking very distinctly without my glass. I felt as sure 

 as it is possible for an amateur to feel when discovering something 

 new, that I had correctly named my bird. There was its size, the 

 bill, the clear, rich brown upper parts, with wings and tail finely 

 barred with a little black, the long, heavy white line over the eye, 

 its whitish, full throat, breast washed with buffy brown, and the 

 unmistakable wren-like movements of the tail. All answered ex- 

 actly to its description. He had a very smooth sort of a peurri7ig 



