44 WILD BIRDS 



All these summer warblers blackcap, garden 

 warbler, lesser whitethroat, chiff-chaff, and willow 

 warbler slip nimbly about the stems whilst singing 

 and searching for caterpillars at the same time. 

 But the wood warbler seems the nimblest. It 

 hovers more than the others hover, often darting 

 off a twig, and hanging in the air a very humming 

 bird for an instant or two to sweep a tiny cater- 

 pillar off the underside of the birch leaf. 



Then back in a lovely flash to its twig often 

 a dead twig to break anew into that strange 

 tremulous trill. 



So it sings for hours through a May or June day ; 

 and if one chances to see a pair of wood warblers 

 in the spring hunting for food in the same tree, and 

 toying with each other in hot little charges and 

 challenges, it is an exquisite addition to the trill 



and shake and the swift dart and hover. 



* * * * * 



In the birch and pine belt by the roadside are 

 three wood warblers, all trilling, perhaps against 

 each other, though whether these represent three 

 nests I do not know. It may be that they have not 

 even yet made their domed nests down in the dead 

 leaves and the copse grasses, for the wood warbler 

 is a late bird. 



Now, of these three wood warblers I have no doubt 

 that one at least if not one pair trilled and nested 

 in this roadside belt last June. Here is our old 

 marvel of bird marvels : this little sylph slipped 

 through the skies thousands of miles at the end of 



