April 
warbling vireo, but the tone is far more full and 
rich than the vireo’s. Both the warbling and 
the red-eyed vireo make one feel that they have 
not the sweetest temper in the world, but the 
purple finch is evidently one of the most cor- 
dial and good-natured of creatures. 
Now, too, 
‘* The swallow skims the river’s wat’ry face, 
The frogs renew the croaks of their loquacious race ;” 
—the white-breasted swallows being the earliest 
of the family to appear in spring. ‘They are 
only about six inches long ; but the wide sweep 
of the wings and the pure white of the body be- 
neath make them very conspicuous; while the 
lustrous steel-green of the upper side becomes 
visible when they sail near the ground. There 
is an ecstasy or intoxication in the flight of the 
swallows, as a large number of them perform 
their bewildering and tireless evolutions over 
stream or lake, that affords one of the most 
pleasing and animated scenes of inland nature. 
On the same day as the swallows, came the 
third warbler, the ‘‘ yellow-rump,’’ the most 
abundant in the migrations, and the only one of 
the family that lingers in this latitude through 
the winter, although the great majority even of 
119 
