GOOD-BY TO THE BIRDS. 223 



I saw the following warblers: the redstart, the 

 magnolia, the blue yellow-back, the blue golden- 

 wing, the Tennessee, the Connecticut, the green 

 black-cap, the Canada flycatcher, the creeper, the 

 black-throated blue, the bay-breasted and several 

 others that remained unidentified. 



Thus it will be seen that the warblers as a rule 

 lead the van in the southward march, like a regi- 

 ment of brilliantly arrayed militia, while the rear 

 is brought up by the black-capped chickadees, the 

 brown creepers, the kinglets, the white-throated 

 sparrows, the winter wrens, the red-breasted nut- 

 hatches, the fox sparrows, the purple finches and 

 many others. And as these birds from the north 

 pass, the procession is joined by many of the birds 

 that remain here during the summer ; for now when 

 I go to the woods I find that the brown thrashers, 

 wood thrushes, orioles and catbirds are to be seen 

 no more in their old haunts. 



Many of these birds are gregarious, and hence 

 move in vast brigades. On the fourth of November 

 last year thousands of robins took possession of one 

 end of my woodland and fairly made the air leap 

 with their united sputterings and scoldings. Still, 

 no birds seem to go in such large armies as the 

 crow blackbirds, which fairly darken the air with 



