2 BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL 



Only the tropics surely could boast such gems. With enthusiasm 

 now fairly aroused, and animated withthe spirit of an explorer, I 

 went at once to work to investigate, and in the course of an hour 

 or two more my ammunition was nearly exhausted, and qixitc a 

 line of poor, lifeless, mutilated little birds lay arranged along the 

 old log. Resting my gun against a neighboring tree, J examined 

 long and carefully the results of my work. Scarcely any two of 

 my specimens were alil^e, and as I contemplated in amazement their 

 varied forms and coloring, 1 felt like the discoverer of a new world, 

 and doubted whether human eyes had ever beheld the like before. 

 Finally, the deepening twilight brought an end to my reveries, and, 

 collecting my prizes, I took my way homeward. Taxidermy being 

 to me then a sealed book, ] had recourse to pepper and salt as pre- 

 servatives, but a few hot days settled the matter and proved the 

 ruin of my collection. I can recall with sufficient distinctness for 

 identification but a single bird of them all, — a fine adult male 

 Black-and-Yelluw Warbler, which at the time I considered the 

 liandsomest, and which 1 still think cannot be surpassed in beauty 

 by any New England representative of the family. That aftenioon 

 was an imlucky one for the birds. It laid the foundation for a 

 taste that has since caused the destruction of thousands of their 

 tribe. 



The Black-and-Yellow Warbler arj-jves in Massachusetts from the 

 South about the 15th of May. Din-ing the next two or three weeks 

 they are abundant everywhere in congenial localities. Willow 

 thickets near streams, ponds, and other damp places, suit them 

 best, but it is also not unusual to find many in the upland woods, 

 especially where young pines or other evergreens grow thickly. 

 Their food at this season is exclusively insects, the larger part con- 

 eistmg of the numerous species of Dlpteni. The males sing freely, 

 '^specially on warm bright mornings. They associate indifferently 

 with all the migrating warblers, but not unfrcquently 1 have found 

 large flocks composed entirely of members of their own species, and 

 in this way have seen at least fifty individuals collected in one small 

 tract of woodland. By the first of June all excepting a few strag- 

 glers have left. If we follow them northward, avc find a few pairs 

 passing the smnmcr on the mountains of Southern Maine and New 

 Hampshire. In July, 1875, I found them breeding, in company with 

 the Blackburnian WaiV)ler {Dendraca hlackbiirnice), the Snowbird 

 (^Junco hi/emalis), the Golden-crested Kinglet {^Regulus satrapa), and 



