A BIRD-LOVERS APRIL. 227 



I felt under a double obligation to these two 

 specimens of Anorthura troglodytes hiemalis : 

 first for their music itself; and then for the sup- 

 port which it gave to a pet theory of mine, that 

 all our singing birds will yet be found to sing 

 more or less regularly in the course of the 

 vernal migration. 



Within another forty-eight hours this same 

 theory received additional confirmation. I was 

 standing under an apple-tree, watching a pair 

 of titmice who were hollowing out a stub for a 

 nest, when my ear caught a novel song not far 

 away. Of course I made towards it ; but the 

 bird flew off, across the road and into the woods. 

 My hour was up, and I reluctantly started home- 

 ward, but had gone only a few rods before the 

 song was repeated. This was more than human 

 nature could bear, and, turning back upon the 

 run, I got into the woods just in time to see 

 two birds chasing each other round a tree, both 

 uttering the very notes which had so roused my 

 curiosity. Then away they went ; but as I was 

 , again bewailing my evil luck, one of them re- 

 turned, and flew into the oak, directly over my 

 head, and as he did so fell to calling anew, Sue, 

 suky, suky. A single glance upward revealed 

 that this was another of the silent migrants, 

 a brown creeper ! Only once before had I 

 heard from him anything beside his customary 



