The Birds’ Calendar 
backward and forward, the same pervading, 
directionless sound constantly coming to my 
ears, until I was in despair, when I chanced to 
look upward, and saw a little specimen, too 
distant to identify, hopping from branch to 
branch. As he gradually descended I brought 
my glass to bear on his head—the most vul- 
nerable point of attack in such a hunt—and 
detected a black cap covering the top of his 
head and reaching below the eyes—the very 
fellow I had been seeking for more than a week 
—the black-poll warbler ; not a notable beauty, 
but daintly attired in olive; darkly streaked 
above, and mostly white beneath, while the 
glossy ‘‘cap’’ is a conspicuous article of dress 
—a decoration, it hardly needs to be observed, 
that is monopolized by the males, the females 
being either obliged or content to go bare- 
headed. 
The indifferent observer might mistake this 
for the black-and-white creeper, which it some- 
what resembles in color; but the black-poll 
carries himself very differently, not having the 
restless manner of running about, and the in- 
quisitive examination of the under side of every- 
thing, that characterize the creeper. The song 
of the black-poll is weak, as if he had such a 
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