THE WARBLERS ARE COMING 269 



With them, I am pretty sure, came a 

 goodly detachment of myrtle warblers (yel- 

 low-rumps), though the advance guards of 

 that host (two birds were all that fell under 

 my eye) were seen on the 18th of April. 

 The great host is still to come ; for the 

 myrtles are a host, a multitude that no 

 man can number. As I listen to their soft, 

 dreamy trill on these fair spring mornings, 

 when the tall valley willows are all in their 

 earliest green, a sight worth living for, 

 I seem sometimes to be for the moment on 

 the heights of the White Mountains. Well 

 I remember how much I enjoyed their quiet 

 breath of song on the snowy upper slopes of 

 Mt. Moosilauke in May a year ago. For the 

 myrtle, notwithstanding his name, is a great 

 lover of knee-high spruces. 



He is a lovely bird, wherever he lives, and 

 it is good to see him flourish, though by so 

 doing he forfeits the peculiar charm of nov- 

 elty. Everything considered, I am bound 

 to say, that is not so regrettable a loss. If 

 he were as scarce as some of his relatives, 

 every collector's hand would be against him. 

 Czars and rare birds must pay the price. 



