FIRST MEETINGS. 45 



sonance in the tones that was not characteristic of 

 that bird's song, and so I turned aside to reconnoi- 

 tre. My delight can be imagined when I descried 

 my friend with the carmine shield, perched on a 

 small tree, singing away as cheerily as you please. 

 And what a hearty, full-toned song it was, with an 

 irresistible wizardry all its own ! His large, horny 

 beak seemed to impart a peculiar sonorousness to 

 his tones, which rang through the vale in a rich 

 variety of blended recitative and circumflex move- 

 ments, now loud and clear, and now soft and 

 modulated. There was also an air of absent- 

 mindedness about his song, such as one notices in 

 the minstrelsy of the white-throated sparrow and 

 the Baltimore oriole. Daring the summer I saw 

 and heard many of these birds, and found several 

 of their nests. 



My first meeting with the Blackburnian warbler, 

 by many considered the most atti-active of the fam- 

 ily, was on a fall day. Glancing up into the wil- 

 lows, I caught a gleam of black and brilliant 

 orange, the latter blazing in the sunshine like 

 flame. How the bird prevented his plumage from 

 being set on fire was more than I could under- 

 stand. Several females, scarcely less beautiful, 

 flitted about with their gorgeously arrayed hus- 



