56 Tue Birps Axout Us. 
as a feature of our own fields and forest. It is safe 
to assert that a hooded or blackburnian warbler being 
exhibited in a mixed assembly will not be recognized 
by one person in five hundred; yet these superb birds 
are not from the tropics, but a home product. 
On referring to Ridgway’s Manual, we find that 
the Wood-warblers, known scientifically as JMJnzotil- 
tide, are divided into fifteen genera, and of species 
there are some fifty-five, four of which straggle to 
Texas from the south; three are “oven-birds” or 
“water-thrushes,” and one is the yellow-breasted 
chat. Of course there is an endless series in the 
books of “races,” subspecies, and all that result of 
excessive museum zeal; but probably the birds that 
have been separated by the ornithologists are one 
with their brethren, in their own estimation; and cer- 
tainly to him or her who in May watches a flight of 
warblers in the blooming orchard, it will matter little 
whether the blue-winged species, for instance, has a 
yellow chin or white. They move in the trees in the 
same way, lisp the same simple song, and breed 
among themselves, be they of the white or yellow 
branch of their immediate family. 
As a group, the warblers spend the summer in the 
more northern portion of the country, and retire to 
warmer districts on the approach of cold weather. 
As they are insect-eaters, this is more or less of a 
necessity ; and yet we have more than one species 
that can brave a winter of the Middle States, and 
they have been found in Massachusetts at this time 
of year, where the season is more prolonged and the 
average degree of cold greater. 
