.OF NEW ENGLAND. 113 



larger end. Mr. Maynard thought that the " Blackburnians " 

 built in the highest branches of the spruces and hemlocks, and 

 such is very probably their custom. 



(c). The male Blackburnian Warblers are the handsomest 

 of all their large family, for the combination of delicacy and 

 brilliancy in the orange of their throat is unsurpassed. It is 

 a curious fact that they are apparently much more numerous 

 than the females during the migrations, which is the case with 

 several other birds. This phenomenon has never been satisfac- 

 torily explained, and cannot be accounted for merely by the 

 superior gaiety of the male's coloration. It has also been ob- 

 served that when traveling the males of many birds precede 

 the females, and that in winter they occasionally remain in 

 somewhat colder climates. 31 



The Blackburnian Warblers usually reach Eastern Massa- 

 chusetts about the tenth of May, though I have seen them as 

 early as the twenty-first of April, when I observed a pair feed- 

 ing upon ivy-berries, the insects upon which they generally 

 feed not then being common. They are usually rather rare 

 here, and make but a brief stay among our woods and trees, 

 showing a fondness for pines and other evergreens. I have 

 seen as many as three males together, though they more often 

 travel singly. They do not often catch insects in the air, but / / 

 usually remain in trees at a moderate height. Mr. Allen, in r 

 his " Notes on Some of the Rarer Birds of Massachusetts," 

 says that in "some seasons they are extremely abundant at 

 some localities, and commonly are not rare, except in particular 

 situations. Mr. Scott observes that for several weeks in May, 

 in 1866, he could remain at a single place in the woods and 

 shoot ten to twenty per hour." This statement has been 

 severely but amusingly criticised : " several weeks must indi- 

 cate at least three, and had he shot ten hours a day, as he well 

 might have, he would in that time have shot three thousand or 

 more from a single place in the woods" 



31 The fact stated in relation to their wintering has not, I believe, been well de- 

 termined. 



9 



