Windfalls 177 



more at home than among bare apple- 

 boughs. In spring the conditions all favor 

 the congregating here of migratory warblers. 

 No other trees attract so much insert-life, 

 and this alone is the food of these north- 

 bound birds. Misled by text-books and the 

 common names of many species, I have 

 looked in vain for certain warblers among 

 pine-trees, in swamps, and forests of decidu- 

 ous trees of many species, and finally found 

 them in the orchard ; but I have not found 

 that this holds good as to orchards of other 

 fruit. Neither peach- nor pear-trees, be 

 there dozens or hundreds, seem particularly 

 attractive to birds of any species. How this 

 may be in fruit-growing distri&s elsewhere I 

 have not been able to learn, but my own note- 

 book, referring to a locality carefully studied 

 in Maryland, shows that but two per cent, 

 of all the nests I found were in an orchard 

 of about five thousand trees. In the case of 

 summer birds and of those that remain 

 throughout the year, our resident species, it 

 is found that no other locality suits them 

 equally well. The ornithology of an old 

 apple-tree would make a very interesting 

 book. I will not give the list of birds I 



