118 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



wool, feathers, and plant-down, but it is generally lined with 

 hairs and fine shreds of vegetable substance. It is usually 

 small, neat, and very pretty. The eggs of each set are three 

 or four, and average *67 X '55 of an inch. They are commonly 

 (creamy) white, with reddish or umber-brown, and purplish 

 markings, grouped principally about the crown. These mark- 

 ings are for the most part either clear and delicate, or a little 

 coarse and rather obscure ; but the eggs are better character- 

 ized by their shape, being rather broad in proportion to their 

 length. 



(c). I owe much to the charming little " Black- throated 

 Greens " for the pleasure which they have many times afforded 

 me, but I know no means of requiting them, unless by writing 

 their biography with peculiar care. 



They are summer-residents throughout New England, but 

 are particularly common in certain parts of Eastern Massachu- 

 setts. They prefer pines to all other trees, but in the regions 

 of the Nashua and Connecticut Valleys, in the North, and 

 whilst migrating, they are to be found in "mixed" woods, in 

 the former cases especially those which contain other ever- 

 greens. They reach Boston (which now comprises tracts of 

 genuine country) about the fifth of May, sometimes earlier, 

 but rarely much later, and generally, for a day or two before 

 the middle of that month, are very abundant, owing to the 

 migrants bound for homes in a colder climate. After these 

 passengers have disappeared, the "Black-throated Greens" 

 here confine themselves almost exclusively to groves of pine 

 or cedar, chiefly those in high land, and only occasionally stray 

 to orchards or other places, though so tame as sometimes to 

 visit vines growing on the piazza, where I have known them to 

 build their nests. They remain here throughout the summer, 

 and do not altogether disappear until the first week of October. 

 They do not often catch insects in the air, except in spring, 

 and rarely descend to the ground, except for the sake of taking 

 a bath, which they do so prettily that an appreciative spectator 

 qannot fail to enjoy it as much as the birds themselves. They 

 find their food principal!} 7 " among the branches of the ever- 



