The Birds’ Calendar 
its more showy cousin, the ‘‘ blue yellow-back,”’ 
is giving a taste of its vocalization, and a de- 
licious little warble it is. 
May’s panorama is a constantly shifting 
scene. Each day discloses new-comers, while 
the earlier ones gradually diminish and silently 
disappear. In one’s experience of warbler-life, 
perhaps he touches high-water mark when he 
sees for the first time a perfect specimen of the 
Blackburnian warbler. To avoid the appear- 
ance of exaggeration I must refrain from ade- 
quately expressing the surprise and amazement 
elicited by this glowing coal of fire. My first 
view of one in full blaze was on the 6th of the 
month, as it was running about over the open 
ground, where it remained a long time only a 
few feet distant. It might properly be named 
the conflagration warbler. Called, prosily 
enough, from its discoverer, Blackburn, the 
name is saved to poetry by the significant play 
upon words; for while a part of the plumage is 
black as coal, the crown, sides of face, throat, 
and breast are of a most vivid flame-color—a 
most astonishing combination of orange, black, 
and white, and arranged in such abrupt juxta- 
position that, in seeing it for the first time one 
will unquestionably pronounce it the most glo- 
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