DENDRCECA PINUS : PINE-CREEPING WARBLER. 153 



ment for which most of its relatives are so justly famed. 

 Like the species last described, it is notable for the 

 promptness with which it leads the van of the Warbler 

 hosts in spring. It sometimes enters New England 

 even in March, and has been seen near Boston on the 

 ist of April ; while it is frequently to be observed early 

 in the latter month, when the ground is always liable 

 to be covered with snow. Not like the Red-polls, 

 however, which seem to be anxious to get a good start 

 on their way far north, the Pine-creepers linger so 

 readily to breed in any part of New England, that we 

 wonder what makes them in such a hurry to get there. 

 There seems to be no reason for their haste, particu- 

 larly as they are birds which breed all along the At- 

 lantic coast of the United States, at least as far south 

 as the Carolinas. Their character of " early birds " 

 indeed is further attested by the fact that in South 

 Carolina the eggs are laid in March, and young are 

 abroad by the second week in April. The same pre- 

 cipitation marks their autumnal movements ; for they 

 nearly all leave New England in September, seldom 

 lingering into October, and never, like the Red-polls 

 and Yellow-rumps, taking their chances of November 



weather. 



These rather curious birds, so marked in their traits 

 of character, are greatly attached to the coniferous 

 trees to which they owe their name, being seldom 

 found in any other than evergreen woods, even when 

 not breeding ; and the nest is almost infallibly placed 

 in the pines or cedars. Their summer range in New 

 England is rather characteristic of the Alleghanian 

 than of the Canadian Fauna, and the species is hence 

 more numerously represented in Massachusetts and 



