SOME TENNESSEE BIRD NOTES. 203 



their nests, — well, he is himself a pretty 

 rare specimen. 



As for my experience with the family in 

 Tennessee, I was glad, of course, to scrape 

 acquaintance — or to renew it, as the case 

 might be — with the more southern species, 

 the Kentucky, the hooded, the cerulean, the 

 blue-wing, and the yellow-throat: that was 

 partly why I was here ; but perhaps I en- 

 joyed quite as keenly the sight of our own 

 New England birds moving homeward ; tar- 

 rying here and there for a day, but not to 

 be tempted by all the allurements of this 

 fine country; still pushing on, northward, 

 and still northward, as if for them there 

 were no place in the world but the woods 

 where they were born. Of the southern 

 species just named, the Kentucky was the 

 most abundant, with the hooded not far be- 

 hind. The prairie warbler seemed about as 

 common here as in its favored Massachu- 

 setts haunts ; but unless my ear was at fault 

 its song went somewhat less trippingly: it 

 sounded labored, — too much like the scarlet 

 tanager's in the way of effort and jerkiness. 

 Unlike the golden warbler, the prairie was 

 found not only in the lower country, but — 



