102 USEFUL BIRDS. 



who has not listened to their multitudinous notes, as, night 

 after night, they have passed overhead, can realize the num- 

 bers that sweep through the woods in the spring and fall 

 migrations. Those who watched the gi-eat flights of War- 

 blers during the season of 1905 could but marvel at their 

 vast and changing procession. 



One must be in the woods most of the time, during both 

 spring and autumn, to form any adequate conception of 

 these movements ; and even then he may be mystified by 

 the sudden changes he will observe. While at Amesbury, 

 Mass., on May 11, 1900, I went out at daybreak with a few 

 friends who were interested in bird study. As we walked 

 through the streets of the village many male Blackburnian 

 Warblers were seen among the street trees. A little later 

 we saw them all about us in the orchards, their l)rilliant 

 orange breasts flashing in the sunlight. As we approached 

 the woods it was everywhere the same. The night had 

 been very cold, and other insect-eating birds were seeking 

 benumbed insects on or near the ground. There were four 

 bright Redstarts flitting about on the upturned sod of a 

 newly plowed garden. These and other species of Warblers 

 were to be seen in every orchard, wood, and thicket. The 

 Black])urnian Warblers had come in during the night, and 

 were busy hunting for their breakfasts until 7 o'clock, when 

 we went to ours. At 8 o'clock not a single Blackburnian 

 was to be seen. I scoured the country until nearly noon, 

 finding all the other Warblers as at daybreak, but not a 

 Blackburnian could be found. They had done their share 

 in the good work, and had passed on. A later riser would 

 have missed them. Had we not been afield that morning, 

 the fliofht mio;ht have been unrecorded. 



In May most of the smaller birds that pass the summer in 

 our northern woods — Thrushes, Warblers, Vireos, Cuckoos, 

 Towhees and their kin — arrive, mate, and build their nests. 

 In June the trrowinic insect hosts increase, and the activities 

 of the parent birds in procuring food for their 3"oung are at 

 their height. Each occupied nest is a sepulchre for worms, 

 spiders, and insects ; each young bird's mouth is an open 

 door, yawning for their destruction. The parent birds are 



