SPRING AT THE CAPITAL. 161 



On the ist of May I go to the Rock Creek or 

 Piny Branch region to hear the wood-thrush. I always 

 find him by ,this date leisurely chanting his lofty 

 strain ; other thrushes are seen now also, or even 

 earlier, as Wilson's, the olive-backed, the hermit, — 

 the two latter silent, but the former musical. 



Occasionally in the earlier part of May I find the 

 woods literally swarming with warblers, exploring 

 every branch and leaf, from the tallest tulip to the 

 lowest spice-bush, so urgent is the demand for food 

 during their long Northern journeys. At night they 

 are up and away. Some varieties, as the blue yellow- 

 back, the chestnut-sided, and the Blackburnian, during 

 their brief stay, sing nearly as freely as in their breed- 

 ing haunts. For two or three years I have chanced to 

 meet little companies of the bay-breasted warbler, 

 searching for food in an oak wood, on an elevated 

 piece of ground. They kept well up among the 

 branches, were rather slow in their movements, and 

 evidently disposed to tarry but a short time. 



The summer residents here, belonging to this class 

 of birds, are few. I have observed the black and 

 white creeping warbler, the Kentucky warbler, the 

 worm-eating warbler, the redstart, and the gnat- 

 catcher, breeding near Rock Creek. 



Of these the Kentucky warbler is by far the most 



interesting, though quite rare. I meet with him in 



low, damp places in the woods, usually on the steep 



sides of some little run. I hear at intervals a clear, 



ii 



