6 THE CLERK OF THE WOODS 



Golden warblers (summer yellow-birds) 

 made their appearance on the last day of 

 April. The next morning one had dropped 

 into an ideal summering place, a bit of thicket 

 beside a pond and a lively brook, good 

 shelter, good bathing, and plenty of insects, 

 and from the first moment seemed to have 

 no thought of looking farther. I see and 

 hear him every time I pass the spot. The 

 same leafless thicket (but it will be leafy 

 enough by and by) is now inhabited by a 

 catbird. I found him on the 6th, already 

 much at home, feeding, singing, and mewing. 

 Between him and his small, high-colored 

 neighbor there is no sign of rivalry or ill- 

 feeling ; but if another catbird or a second 

 warbler should propose settlement in that 

 clump of shrubbery, I have no doubt there 

 would be trouble. 



May-day brought me the yellow-throated 

 vireo, the parula warbler, the white-throated 

 sparrow, and the least flycatcher, the last 

 two pretty late, by my reckoning. On the 

 2d came the warbling vireo, the veery, a 

 single silent bird, the only one I have yet 

 seen, the kingbird, the Maryland yellow- 



