A NOOK IN THE ALLEGHANIES 179 



ture was picking about the ground, feeding, 

 but every minute or two mounted some low 

 perch, — a few inches seemed to satisfy its 

 ambition, — and delivered itself of a simple, 

 short trill, similar to the pine warbler's for 

 length and form, but in a guttural voice 

 decidedly unlike the pine warbler's clear, 

 musical whistle. It was not a very pleasing 

 song, in itself considered, but I was very 

 much pleased to hear it ; for let the worldly- 

 minded say what they will, a new bird-song 

 is an event. With a single exception, it 

 was the only new one, I believe, of my Vir- 

 ginia trip. 



The worm-eating warbler, it may be worth 

 while to add, is one of the less widely known 

 members of its numerous family ; plainness 

 itself in its appearance, save for its showy 

 cap, and very lowly and sedate in its habits. 

 The few that I have ever had sight of, per- 

 haps a dozen in all, have been on the ground 

 or close to it, though one, I remember, was 

 traveling about the lower part of a tree- 

 trunk after the manner of a black-and-white 

 creeper ; and all observers, so far as I know, 

 agree in pronouncing the song an exception- 

 ally meagre and dry affair. Ordinarily it 



