140 WAKE-ROBIN 



flocks they circle about, high in air, uttering their 

 fine note, or plunge quickly into the tops of remote 

 trees. Day by day they approach nearer and nearer, 

 reconnoitring the premises, and watching the grow- 

 ing fruit. Hardly have the green lobes turned a 

 red cheek to the sun before their beaks have scarred 

 it. At first they approach the tree stealthily, on 

 the side turned from the house, diving quickly into 

 the branches in ones and twos, while the main flock 

 is ambushed in some shade-tree not far off. They 

 are most apt to commit their depredations very early 

 in the morning and on cloudy, rainy days. As the 

 cherries grow sweeter the birds grow bolder, till, 

 from throwing tufts of grass, one has to throw 

 stones in good earnest, or lose all his fruit. In 

 June they disappear, following the cherries to the 

 north, where by July they are nesting in the or- 

 chards and cedar groves. 



Among the permanent summer residents here 

 (one might say city residents, as they seem more 

 abundant in town than out), the yellow warbler or 

 summer yellowbird is conspicuous. He comes about 

 the middle of April, and seems particularly attached 

 to the silver poplars. In every street, and all day 

 long, one may hear his thin, sharp warble. When 

 nesting, the female comes about the yard, pecking 

 at the clothes-line, and gathering up bits of thread 

 to weave into her nest. 



Swallows appear in Washington from the first to 

 the middle of April. They come twittering along 

 in the way so familiar to every New England boy. 



