STEARNS WILD BIRDS IN CITY PARKS 313 



down the sides of a glorious fellow. Look at the jetty necklace 

 he wears over his brilliant yellow vest and note that patch of 

 gray on the very top of his head, those flashes of white on his 

 wings as he flutters, tip-tiltingly for you to see. There are white 

 strips over his eye, and we must note all well, for unless you know 

 him, this fellow is not so easily found out. No bird-book seems 

 to do him. justice, though when one knows him, the magnolia 

 warbler always brings particular joy. 



Scarcely had we torn ourselves away from admiring him, and 

 wondering at the sleeping man beneath the tree, unconscious, 

 like too many a wide-awake one, of the glorious things about him., 

 when we encountered still another bird, m.uch like the one just 

 described, but with m.arkings less distinct, and two white wing 

 bars. This we found to be the mate of the magnolia warbler. 



Satisfied, indeed, we turned homeward in earnest, though we 

 could not shut our eyes when we spied Mr. Black-billed Cuckoo, 

 nor could we resist a brief flirtation with such friends as the 

 golden crowned kinglets, a brown creeper, the northern hairy 

 woodpecker at his game of hide-and-seek around a tree, a yellow- 

 bellied sap-sucker, and a Baltimore oriole that flashed across our 

 vision. 



Late in the afternoon we sought the museum, for the sure 

 identification of some of the more unusual specimens we had seen, 

 but we were late and as the "all out" was soon sounded, we again 

 turned homeward, scarcely looking for birds now, so thronged 

 was the park with people. But there was no need to look for 

 the evening frolic of a gaily attired chap that now flaunted himself 

 before us. 



Was ever bird so well satisfied with his new spring coat? No 

 wonder he was very proud of those great squares of clear orange, 

 tipped with black; no wonder he turned this way, and now that, 

 to give us a full view of those glorious epaulettes and breast 

 plates of the radiant hues, the "brawest hielanman o' them a' " — 

 rightly named redstart, displaying — ^why, of course, the sunset 

 colors at the close of a glorious, happy day. 



Even as I write a yellow warbler chatters saucily in the trees 

 of our city street, and seems ever to call to nerve-racked and weary 

 ones. 



"Oh, come out among the birds and let your ]icart bubble!" 



