66 MY WOODLAND. 



taking a cold bath last winter, even when there 

 was a thin coating of ice on it, except around the 

 margin. It made me shiver to see them paddling 

 in the icy water. 



A few days ago — it was the fifteenth of Septem- 

 ber — I had become almost discouraged, for I had 

 been prowling about for a long time in the woods 

 without finding any new or rare birds ; but I 

 decided at last to visit this spot, hoping fortune 

 would favor my quest. And she did. I had not 

 come within five rods of the place before I heard the 

 familiar "How-do-you-do? " of the chickadees and 

 nuthatches, mingling with the varied chipping of a 

 platoon of warblers. They had taken the bushes 

 and saplings by storm, and beautiful indeed was 

 the sight as they flitted and twinkled amid the 

 foliage, their brilliant hues catching the sunlight 

 and flashing it back to the eye. 



The following is a list of the warblers I saw in that 

 covey : the blue yellow-back, the blue golden-wing, 

 the magnolia, the Tennessee, the black-throated 

 green, the Connecticut, the green black-cap, the 

 redstart and the black and white creeper, besides 

 several other species that baffled all my efforts to 

 keep them in the field of my glass long enough to 

 identify them. A red-eyed vireo seemed to find 



