WARBLERS. 115 



observed that, when traveling, the males of many birds precede 

 the females, and that in winter they occasionally remain 

 in somewhat colder climates. 50 



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 

 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." 



An interesting anecdote, relative to these birds, has been 

 communicated to me by a student in the Institute of Tech- 

 nology. On the eleventh of May, 1875, a male of this species 

 fell through the ventilator in the topmost story on to the floor 

 of the drawing-room, stunned. He was finally placed on the 

 sill of an open window, from which, when revived by the fresh 

 air and sun, he afterward took flight. 



In summer, the Blackburnian Warblers are common in 

 northern New England, where they inhabit woodland, par- 

 ticularly evergreen swamps ; but in Massachusetts they are 

 extremely rare, or rather accidental. 



d. W r hen together in family parties, they twitter con- 



60 The fact stated in relation to their * An exceptionally early date. 

 wintering has not, I believe, been well W. B. 

 determined. 



