132 On the Birds of Ritchie County. 



days were quite numerous. Found them in small companies in the deep- 

 est recesses of the woods, where they flitted on ahead in their characteris- 

 tically silent and phantom-like way. All the specimens taken were quite 

 typical. 



5. Turdus Pallasii Cab. Frequent in the elevated woods during the 

 latter part of April and first three or four days of May, when they all dis- 

 appeared. 



6. 3Iimus Carolinensis (L.) Gr. Very common. Found everywhere 

 in the open country, but especially in the briery thickets along the margin 

 of the creeks. The only peculiarity of song noticed was the occasional 

 interpolation of notes foreign to the ear of a New England collector, but 

 common enough here ; such as the call of the tufted titmouse, the chirrup 

 of the Cai'olina wren, and the sharp tchip of the red bird. 



7. Harporhynchus rufus (L.) Cab. Not common. A few were seen 

 daily up to about the 1st of May, when they all disappeared. 



Family SAXICOLID^. The Saxicolas. 



8. Sialia sialis (L.) Haldeman. Not abundant, but very generally 

 distributed, breeding in the dead stubs along the wood edges and creek 

 bottoms. 



Family SYLVIID^. The Sylvias. 



9. Begulus calendula (L.) Licht. More abundant than I have ever 

 seen them elsewhere. Found frequently in companies of a dozen or more. 

 Associated as' they often were, with many of the rarer warblers, they 

 proved a great nuisance, for although the characteristic and almost con- 

 stant tremulous motion of the wings, together with the small size, never 

 failed to identify the little bunch of animated feathers upon a good view, 

 yet when dimly seen among the thick branches, they frequently fell un- 

 wished-tor victims, in place of some more desirable bird that we had been 

 pursuing. None of the males we: - e heard to sing, and by May 9th all had 

 disappeared. 



10. Polioptila cwrulea (L.) Scl. Common from the time of our arrival, 

 and very generally distributed throughout the woods, although showing 

 a rather decided preference for the heavy timber, where they kept high up 

 in the trees. When seen one hundred feet or more above the earth they 

 remind one more of insects than birds, so active and so very frail and 

 slender do they seem. In motions they bear perhaps a greater resem- 

 blance to the redstart (Svtophaga ruticilla) than to any other bird, like 

 him launching out frequently after insects and alighting with spread tail 

 and drooping wings, but they have withal an impertinent, quizzical air, 

 savoring strongly of cat bird ways; the song is indeed quite that of the 

 latter bird, but in miniature (if I may apply such an expression to sound) 

 a quaint mocking little strain, continued half a minute or more at a time 

 and full of mewings and harsh chatters, with an occasional full round 

 note, but altogether so feeble as scarcely to be audible at twenty yards' 



