AN OCTOBER DIARY. 295 



vain. To-day, an hour before sunrise, many of the trees 

 were crowded with them. There was a multitude of 

 black-throated blues, beautiful spotted ones, and others 

 of duller coloring. From the north and west, down the 

 valley of tlie river, I suppose, these little birds came 

 as a cloud, and happily chose the tall pines about the 

 house for a resting-place. Still, it cannot be said that 

 they rested much. All were active as in spring, evi- 

 dently unwearied by their journey, and were themselves 

 in all respects save song, for scarcely one deigned even 

 to feebly chirp. 



The nuthatches and their accompanying tree-creeper 

 did not take kindly to the warblers in such vast num- 

 bers. They remained nearer the ground than usual, 

 venturing only to the lowest branches ; but when a 

 warbler came that low, the nuthatches pursued it in hot 

 haste, and sent it flying to its kindred in the sky-parlors 

 of the pines. 



At the close of day I watched these myriads of rest- 

 less birds for an hour or more, and when it was almost 

 too dark to distinguish them, a great chirping, twitter- 

 ing, and shrill whistling was set up, and more suddenly 

 than this commenced, these warblers took flight, mount- 

 ing upward, I thought, for I could not see ; and then, as 

 a few favoring rays of light lit up the southern horizon, 

 I saw minute black dots, for a moment, against the pale 

 gray clouds, which were, I doubt not, these southward- 

 travelling birds. They evidently intended to travel by 

 night, as they had done on the previous one ; but surely 

 they took no rest while they tarried in tlie pines ; and 

 this ability to remain constantly active for so long a 



