THE AUTUMNAL FLIGHT 121 



grant birds encountered strengthen this feeling. 

 Among those that seem especially characteristic is the 

 yellow-bellied woodpecker, or sapsucker. It is a 

 beautiful bird, and somehow I seem more apt to meet 

 it in autumn than in the spring. This last is notably 

 true of the Connecticut warbler, that retiring trav- 

 eler, characteristic of the cool, moist woodland, which 

 is rare in spring, but in September at times becomes 

 almost common. Somehow I love to hunt them out 

 and feel that I am witnessing an annual event. 

 What delight it gives to strike a warbler day in the 

 woods when the flight is well on, and we are meeting, 

 every now and then, the mixed parties from which we 

 try to pick out the various species. Another charac- 

 teristic migrant is the blue-headed vireo, noticeable 

 from the distinct white ring around the eye. Then 

 there is the demure and shadowy olive-backed thrush 

 back amid the shrubbery, and the other thrushes as 

 well. The ruffed grouse whirs off, almost invisible 

 through the thick leaves. We are encountering far 

 more hawks than could have been seen in summer. 

 Now and then a solitary one, of almost any kind, 

 may glide through the trees, or overhead they may 

 be straggling past in scattering flocks, in any of which 

 various species may be represented. Many of them 

 are the young birds, and this is the time of year to see 

 them in numbers. 



Rapidly does the aspect of things change with Oc- 

 tober, the period when Nature is in gaudy array, of 

 nuts, of frosty mornings, and glorious bracing air. 



