SPRING AT THE CAPITAL. 195 



find the woods literally swarming with war- 

 blers, exploring every branch and leaf, from 

 the tallest tulip to the lowest spice-bush, so 

 urgent is the demand for food during their 

 long Northern journeys. At night they are 

 up and away. Some varieties, as the blue 

 yellow-back, the chestnut-sided, and the 

 Blackburnian, during their brief stay, sing 

 nearly as freely as in their breeding haunts. 

 For two or three years I have chanced to 

 meet little companies of the bay-breasted 

 warbler, searching for food in an oak wood 

 on an elevated piece of ground. They kept 

 well up among the branches, were rather 

 slow in their movements, and evidently dis- 

 posed to tarry but a short time. 



The summer residents here belonging to 

 this class of birds are few. I have observed 

 the black and white creeping warbler, the 

 Kentucky warbler, the worm-eating warbler, 

 the redstart, and the gnat-catcher, breeding 

 near Rock Creek. 



Of these the Kentucky warbler is by far 

 the most interesting, though quite rare. I 

 meet with him in low, damp places in the 

 woods, usually on the steep sides of some 

 little run. I hear at intervals a clear, 

 strong, bell-like whistle or warble, and pres- 



