SPRJNG AT THE CAPITAL. 185 



August on their return, accompanied by 

 their young. 



The national capital is situated in such a 

 vast spread of wild, wooded, or semi-culti- 

 vated country, and is in itself so open and 

 spacious, with its parks and large govern- 

 ment reservations, that an unusual number 

 of birds find their way into it in the course 

 of the season. Rare warblers, as the black- 

 poll, the yellow red-poll, and the bay-breasted, 

 pausing in May on their northward journey, 

 pursue their insect game in the very heart 

 of the town. 



I have heard the veery thrush in the trees 

 near the White House ; and one rainy April 

 morning, about six o'clock, he came and blew 

 his soft, mellow flute in a pear-tree in my 

 garden. The tones had all the sweetness 

 and wildness they have when heard in June 

 in our deep Northern forests. A day or two 

 afterward, in the same tree, I heard for the 

 first time the song of the golden-crowned wren, 

 or kinglet, the same liquid bubble and 

 cadence which characterize the wren-songs 

 generally, but much finer and more delicate 

 than the song of any other variety known to 

 me ; beginning in a fine, round, needle-like 

 note, and rising into a full, sustained war- 



