56 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



as a feature of our own fields and forest. It is safe 

 to assert that a hooded or blackburnian warbler being 

 exhibited in a mixed assembly will not be recognized 

 by one person in five hundred ; yet these superb birds 

 are not from the tropics, but a home product. 



On referring to Ridgway's Manual, we find that 

 the Wood-warblers, known scientifically as Mniotil- 

 tida, are divided into fifteen genera, and of species 

 there are some fifty-five, four of which straggle to 

 Texas from the south ; three are " oven-birds" or 

 " water-thrushes," and one is the yellow-breasted 

 chat. Of course there is an endless series in the 

 books of " races," subspecies, and all that result of 

 excessive museum zeal ; but probably the birds that 

 have been separated by the ornithologists are one 

 with their brethren, in their own estimation ; and cer- 

 tainly to him or her who in May watches a flight of 

 warblers in the blooming orchard, it will matter little 

 whether the blue-winged species, for instance, has a 

 yellow chin or white. They move in the trees in the 

 same way, lisp the same simple song, and breed 

 among themselves, be they of the white or yellow 

 branch of their immediate family. 



As a group, the warblers spend the summer in the 

 more northern portion of the country, and retire to 

 warmer districts on the approach of cold weather. 

 As they are insect-eaters, this is more or less of a 

 necessity; and yet we have more than one species 

 that can brave a winter of the Middle States, and 

 they have been found in Massachusetts at this time 

 of year, where the season is more prolonged and the 

 average degree of cold greater. 



