192 A DAINTY WARBLER. 



breeds mostly north of this latitude, he has been 

 known to breed as far south as Jamaica. What 

 his next whim will be it is impossible to predict. 



It would not be difficult to pursue the study 

 of ornithology, if all birds were as fearless and 

 familiar as the yellow-rumped warbler. In the 

 spring he usually remains in more out-of-the-way 

 places, but in the autumn he comes to the suburbs 

 of the city, and seems to be quite sociable. At 

 this very moment, as I sit at my desk looking 

 out of my study window — it is the sixteenth of 

 October, and a raw, wet day — I see a bevy of these 

 warblers fluttering about in the maples before the 

 house, in company with tlie bluebirds and chipping 

 sparrows, with which they seem to be on friendly 

 terms. As they spread their wings and dart across 

 the street, their yellow rumps flash like tiny bars 

 of gold. 



How often, as I walk along the streets on autumn 

 days, I hear their hoarse little Chep^ chep^ chep ! in 

 the trees above me, as if the frosty nights and 

 damp weather had given them a cold, wliich has 

 settled in their throats. I cannot help stopping 

 to ogle them, even at the risk of being laughed at 

 by passers-by, who almost invariably stop to ogle 

 me in turn, thinking perhaps that I have gone daft. 



