58 IN THE HEMLOCKS. 



colored throat and breast; the same color showing 

 also in a line over the eye and in his crown ; back 

 variegated black and white. The female is less 

 marked and brilliant. The orange-throated warbler 

 would seem to be his right name, his characteristic 

 cognomen ; but no, he is doomed to wear the name 

 of some discoverer, perhaps the first who robbed his 

 nest or rifled him of his mate, Blackburn ; hence, 

 Blackburnian warbler. The burn seems appropriate 

 enough, for in these dark evergreens his throat and 

 breast show like flame. He has a very fine warble, 

 suggesting that of the redstart, but not especially 

 musical. I find him in no other woods in this vi- 

 cinity. 



I am attracted by another warble in the same 

 locality, and experience a like difficulty in getting a 

 good view of the author of it. It is quite a noticeable 

 strain, sharp and sibilant, and sounds well amid the 

 old trees. In the upland woods of beech and maple 

 it is a more familiar sound than in these solitudes. 

 On taking the bird in hand, one cannot help exclaim- 

 ing, " How beautiful ! " So tiny and elegant, the 

 smallest of the warblers ; a delicate blue back, with 

 a slight bronze-colored triangular spot between the 

 shoulders ; upper mandible black ; lower mandible 

 yellow as gold ; throat yellow, becoming a dark 

 bronze on the breast. Blue yellow-back he is called, 

 though the yellow is much nearer a bronze. He is 

 remarkably delicate and beautiful, the handsomest 

 as he is the smallest of the warblers known to me 



