222 GOOD-BY TO THE BIRDS. 



autumn days, I hear their chirping in the trees 

 above me, and cannot help stopping to ogle them 

 awhile ; which is generally the signal for a number 

 of passers-by to pause and ogle mo as if they were 

 in doubt of my sanity. 



The procession begins quite early in the season, 

 sometimes by the latter part of July, if not before. 

 The first migrant I noticed this year (1890) was 

 a black-and-white creeping warbler, in a very tat- 

 tered toilet, for he was moulting. This was in 

 midsummer, and I have no doubt he was a scout 

 sent out before the main body to reconnoiter. A 

 week or so later several female redstarts and the 

 blue-gray gnatcatcher were flitting gayly about in 

 the trees at the border of my favorite woodland ; 

 they were evidently the vanguard of the cavalcade 

 soon to follow. My notes inform me that on the 

 twenty -second of August I saw a male redstart and 

 several creeping warblers in full plumage, and also 

 the Nashville warbler and the black-poll. On the 

 twenty-eighth a magnolia warbler was added to the 

 list, and before the middle of September the woods 

 were literally swarming with warblers of many spe- 

 cies, accompanied by a few red-eyed vireos. The 

 fifteenth of September Avas an ideal day for a bird 

 lover, for on that day, while loitering in the woods, 



