64 MY WOODLAND. 



was the little minstrel — the winged Orpheus — 

 perched on a sapling and not sufficiently startled 

 by my presence to cease his song. I soon got all 

 his markings with my opera glass, and had the 

 pleasure of studying him in his singing attitudes. 

 He tui-ned out to be Kirtland's warbler. I feel 

 greatly elated over this discovery, for all the books 

 declare that he is a rare bird, and not one of the 

 many works on ornithology that I have studied, 

 so much as refers to his song. Besides, I have 

 been a diligent reader of those charming writers, 

 Bradford Torrey, John Burroughs, Maurice Thomp- 

 son, Charles C. Abbott and Olive Thorne Miller, 

 but I do not think that one of them even mentions 

 this bird. If any other observer has heard his 

 cheerful lay, he seems to have kept the secret to 

 himself so far as the world of popular readers is 

 concerned.* 



* At the time I was really not aware that I had made so rare a discovery. 

 More than one letter from expert ornithologists has reached me, congratulat- 

 ing me on having seen Kirtland's warbler, and especiallj' on liaving heard 

 his song. Even at the risk of appearing egotistical, I will qnote from a 

 letter written me by Bradford Torrey after he had read the foregoing, which 

 was first published in the Illustrated Christian Weekly. He says : " I would 

 give all ray old boots, and all mj- new ones, for a good look at a Kirtland's 

 warl)ler. But I don't expect to have my wish granted — in this life, at all 

 events. I congratulate you on a great piece of good fortune. Now if you 

 could find it breeding! That would be an addition to science, wouldn't it?" " 



It would be worth one's while to explore the whole American continent 

 to find this rare and beautiful warbler's nest. Mr. Ridgway in his manual 

 says that its summer residence is not known. A very courteous personal 



