194 VIRGINIA 



males in full plumage, and one of the last 

 two was singing. The warbler migration 

 was just coming on, and I could not help 

 believing that with a little time blue golden- 

 wings would grow to be fairly numerous. 

 That, of course, was matter of conjecture. 

 I found no sign of the species at Natural 

 Bridge, which is about a hundred miles from 

 Pulaski in a northeasterly direction. In 

 Massachusetts this beautiful warbler's dis- 

 tribution is decidedly local, and its common- 

 ness is believed to have increased greatly in 

 the last twenty years. Possibly the same 

 may be true in Virginia. Possibly, too, my 

 seeing of five or six specimens, on opposite 

 sides of the city, was nothing but a happy 

 chance, and my inference from it a pure de- 

 lusion. 



I have implied that the warbler migration 

 was approaching its height on the 1st of May. 

 In point of fact, however, the brevity of my 

 visit — and perhaps also its date, neither 

 quite early enough nor quite late enough — 

 rendered it impossible for me to gather much 

 as to the course of this always interesting 

 movement, or even to understand the sig- 

 nificance of the little of it that came under 



