120 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME BIRDS 



though, no doubt, from very different motives. The majesty 

 of those trees, their gracefulness, their freshness throughout 

 the year, their beauty in summer, when, after a hard shower, 

 the light of the setting sun breaks upon them, their beauty in 

 winter, when their branches are loaded, many to the ground, 

 with snow, or when they are covered with glittering ice, their 

 whisperings in the breezes of spring and summer, their sighing 

 and whistling in the southern gales, and finally their odor, 

 combine to render them the finest, I think, of all our forest 

 trees. 



(J) PINUS. Pine Warbler. (Pine-tree Warbler.) Pine-creep- 

 ing Warbler* ("Pine Creeper") 



(A common summer- resident in the pine-tracts of Massa- 

 chusetts.) 



(a). 5^-6 inches long. Upper parts, olive. Belly and two 

 wing-bars, white. Superciliary line, throat, and breast, bright 

 yellow. 9 duller, often with little yellow below. In both 

 sexes "tail-blotches confined to two outer pairs of tail feathers, 

 large, oblique" 



(b). The nest is usually to be found in the same situation, 

 and is otherwise essentially like that of the "Black- throated 

 Green" (I). Though generally finished in the last week of May 

 it has been found in the earlier part of the month. The eggs 

 of each set are usually four, and average -67 X '52 of an inch. 

 They are white, with purplish and brown markings, or fine 

 markings of three shades of brown, sprinkled chiefly at the 

 "great end." 



(c). The Pine Warblers have a very extensive breeding- 

 range, and are probably to be found in summer throughout 

 New England, in the pine-wooded districts. They are the first 

 of their family to reach the Eastern States in 'spring, and I 

 have seen them near Boston on the first of April. They usu- 

 ally, however, arrive here in the first or second week of that 

 month, and return to the South in the latter part of September, 

 occasionally lingering until the middle of October. Except 

 in the summer-season, they are often more or less gregarious, 



