Waiting for Warblers. 71 



bird, but with such pecuHar habits that it is prom- 

 inent even when many birds of other kinds are 

 about it. Attention will be drawn to it by its 

 stately walk and a seesaw motion that suggests our 

 long-legged wading birds. On their arrival, late in 

 April, no bird is more familiar, and they even tarry 

 for a few days in the larger yards of our towns if 

 they have much shrubbery in them. But when the 

 days grow some half-hour longer and the noontide 

 heat a few degrees stronger, these thrush-like warblers 

 take to the woods and settle there for the remainder 

 of their summer sojourn ; here only can you see these 

 lively birds at their best, and perhaps it is safe to say 

 that to hear their song you must go to their haunts 

 towards sunset or when the day is cloudy and rain 

 threatened. I have not found them an all-day-long 

 singer, even in nesting-time, though others, it ap- 

 pears, have been more fortunate. Before a favorite 

 bit of woodland was cleared I have had nesting 

 oven-birds at my elbow all day, and they have 

 never more than chirped. Busy along the brook-side, 

 these miniature sand-pipers were satisfied to chirp 

 only, and this not frequently. It did not appear 

 that my constant presence disturbed them in any 

 way, and I concluded that they could be, if they 

 chose, the most taciturn of all our birds. But as 

 the sun went down all this changed, and when a 

 mellow light that is beyond description filled the 

 woodland, and other birds were thinking of their 

 night-long rest, the oven-bird was moved to sing, 

 and spent all his energy in uttering, with regularly 



