120 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME BIRDS 
though, no doubt, from very different motives. The majesty 
of those trees, their gracefulness, their freshness throughout 
the year, their beauty in summer, when, after a hard shower, 
the light of the setting sun breaks upon them, their beauty in 
winter, when their branches are loaded, many to the ground, 
with snow, or when they are covered with glittering ice, their 
whisperings in the breezes of spring and summer, their sighing 
and whistling in the southern gales, and finally their odor, 
combine to render them the finest, I think, of all our forest 
trees. 
(J) prnus. Pine Warbler. (Pine-tree Warbler.) Pine-creep- 
ing Warbler. (‘‘Pine Creeper.”) 
(A common summer-resident in the pine-tracts of Massa- 
chusetts. ) 
(a). 53-6 inches long. Upper parts, olive. Belly and two 
wing-bars, white. Superciliary line, throat, and breast, bright 
yellow. 9 duller, often with little yellow below. In both 
sexes ‘‘ tail-blotches confined to two outer pairs of tail feathers, 
large, oblique.” 
(b). The nest is usually to be found in the same situation, 
and is otherwise essentially like that of the ‘ Black-throated 
Green” (1). Though generally finished in the last week of May 
it has been found in the earlier part of the month. The eggs 
of each set are usually four, and average °67 X °52 of an inch. 
They are white, with purplish and brown markings, or fine 
markings of three shades of brown, sprinkled chiefly at the 
*‘oreat end.” 
(c). The Pine Warblers have a very extensive breeding- 
range, and are probably to be found in summer throughout 
New England, in the pine-wooded districts. They are the first 
of their family to reach the Eastern States in spring, and I 
have seen them near Boston on the first of April. They usu- 
ally, however, arrive here in the first or second week of that 
month, and return to the South in the latter part of September, 
occasionally lingering until the middle of October. Except 
in the summer-season, they are often more or less gregarious, 
