SOUTHWARD BOUND 101 



They went far up toward the Arctic circle, but 

 before the end of July they were back again, 

 hastening to the equator. The golden plover, 

 we are told, travels from Greenland to Pata- 

 gonia. 



All summer the golden warblers were singing 

 within sound of my windows. As I walked I saw 

 them flitting in and out of the roadside bushes, 

 beautiful and delicate creatures. But before the 

 first of September the last of them disappeared. 

 I did not see them depart. They took wing in 

 the night, and almost before I suspected it they 

 were gone. They will winter in Central or South 

 America, and, within a week of May-day, we shall 

 have them here again, as much at home as if they 

 had never left us. 



They were gone before the first of September, 

 I said. But I was thinking of those which had 

 summered in Massachusetts. In point of fact, I 

 saw a golden warbler only ten days ago. He was 

 with a mixed flock of travelers, and, in all like- 

 lihood, had come from the extreme north ; for 

 this dainty, blue-eyed warbler is common in sum- 

 mer, not only throughout the greater part of the 

 United States, but on the very shores of the Arc- 

 tic Ocean. So he voyages back and forth, living 

 his life from land to land, as Tennyson says, led 

 by who knows what impulse ? 



