540 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



Btitute four distinct, genuine species. Both views 

 of the question have had authoritative advocates ; 

 and as late as 1858, Baird, in his General Report 

 upon the Zoology of the several Pacific Railroad 

 Routes, part II., (vol. IX. of the reports on the 

 Pacific Railroad explorations and surveys,) not 

 satisfied with the previous arrangement of orni- 

 thologists of note, — uniting the Hemlock and 

 Autumnal Warblers under Sijlvicola parus, mak- 

 ing three species from the four nominal ones — 

 makes but two out of the four, referring S, pants 

 to S. Blackburnice, and S. avtumnalis to S. cas- 

 tanea, a proceeding that, considering the facts 

 furnished by older authors, at present seems al- 

 most unwarranted. Their first describer, and sub- 

 sequent writers of the highest note, observed and 

 described them as distinct, and with apparent 

 good reasons ; and thus we now leave them. 



The Chestnut-Sided Warbler, [Sylvicola 

 Pennsylvanica; S. icterocephala, Swainson ; Den- 

 droica Pennsylvanica, Baird,) is not unfrequent- 

 ly met with in various parts of New England, 

 throughout the summer. They arrive from the 

 South early in May, and generally frequent low 

 thickets or moist woodlands, where they general- 

 ly remain during the summer, after building their 

 nests in swampy and retired situations, and sel- 

 dom appear in cultivated grounds. The male 

 possesses a short, but very agreeable song. They 

 construct their nest in bushes, (according to Dr. 

 Brewer,) laying three or four milk white eggs, 

 marked with purple blotches. They doubtless rear 

 two broods in a year, as I have observed them feed- 

 ing their young late in August, in the central por- 

 tions of New Hampshire and Vermont. Several 

 pairs have taken up their residence in my imme- 

 diate vicinity the present summer, but all my ef- 

 forts to discover their nests have thus far been 

 fruitless. South of New England it does not ap- 

 pear so common, although its habitat is consid- 

 ered to be the whole United States eastward of the 

 Mississippi. Wilson considered it very rare, and 

 speaks of it as "one of those transient visitors 

 that pass through Pennsylvania, in April and 

 May, on their way North to breed." And Audu- 

 bon observes that the only ones he ever met with 

 were five that he shot in the same State, one cold 

 May morning, when there was a light snow, al- 

 though at the time peach and apple trees were in 

 bloom. 



Length five inches; extent seven and a half ; 

 upper parts streaked with black and gray, and 

 skirted with glossy olive green ; crown brilliant 

 yellow ; front, line over the eye and auriculars 

 white ; lores and a patch beneath black ; a streak 

 of bright chestnut descends along the sides of 

 the neck and body ; rest of the under parts white. 

 The female is slightly smaller, and has the colors 

 paler. This is one of our handsomest species. 



The Pine Warbler, (iS^Zfico/a pinus, Audubon ; 

 Dendroica pinus, Baird,) or Pine Creeping War- 

 bler, as sometimes described, is a common spe- 

 cies in our pine woods throughout the summer, 

 and is often among our earliest spring visitants, 

 being the earliest of all tlie Warblers in its arri- 

 val. The present year I observed them the 4th 

 of April, at which time a recent snow covered the 

 ground, to the depth of several inches, and por- 

 tions of it remained for a week. The lively twit- 

 ter of numerous individuals could be heard in the 

 pine woods, from the tops of the lofty pitch pines, 



{pinus rigidus,) where they hunted their food 

 among the thick branches, for several days, while 

 the ground beneath was wholly snow clad. Dur- 

 ing the last weeks of April and the first of May, 

 they frequent open fields, particularly orchards 

 and gardens, obtaining much of their food from the 

 ground, continually wagging their tails as they 

 Hit about, and appear quite unsuspicious of harm. 

 A little later they retire to the pine forest, in which 

 they almost exclusively remain during the sum- 

 mer, where they rear their young, placing their 

 nest, it is said, in the fork of a horizontal branch, 

 and lay four white eggs, marked with a few dark 

 brown spots at the greater end. Late in autumn 

 it retires southward ; and Wilson states that it 

 remains throughout the year in the pine forests 

 of the Southern States. In hunting for its food 

 it is very active, sometimes creeping along the 

 trunks of the tree, or hanging from the extremi- 

 ties of the branches in various postures, like the 

 Chickadee or Titmouse. 



Length five and one half inches ; extent nine ; 

 upper parts lively yellowish-green olive ; beneath 

 yellow, fading into white on the belly and lower 

 tail coverts. The female has the colors much 

 paler. The Vigor's Warbler, {Sylvia Vigoisii,) 

 described by Audubon as a new species, was mere- 

 ly the young of the Pine Warbler. 



Springfield, 186L j. A. A. 



For the New England FarrMr. 

 irWDEBDKAININ"G. 



Respected Friend : — In the last number of 

 your valuable paper, I see an inquiry made by a 

 "Constant Reader," "What is the best manner 

 of underdraining swamp land ?" That is a very 

 important question, for I consider land that is 

 well underdrained the best land we have. 



I will state, briefly, some of our experience in 

 underdraining. For the last sis or seven years 

 we have been improving our wet lands, v.'hethei; 

 swamp meadow, or wet upland, by underdraining. 

 We dig a ditch around the low, wet land, next to 

 the upland, wide and deep enough to drain the 

 land well ; then fill the ditch with stones carted 

 from our fields that we are glad to get rid of; 

 then scatter over the stones in the ditch, some 

 poor meadow hay or straw, and cover over with 

 the material taken from the drain. 



This kind of a ditch, with a few small side 

 drains extending to the main one, (if they are 

 needed,) drains our land effectually. 



Four years since we underdrained about 4^ acres 

 of low meadow and wet upland, where we used to 

 get from one to three tons of poor meadow hay. 

 Last year we took eight tons, this season thirteen 

 tons of the best of English hay. The water flows 

 freely through all of our drains, and I have no 

 doubt but it will continue to do so. 



Perhaps you may inquire, "How did you pre- 

 pare the land after draining ?" We plowed when 

 we could ; and when we could plow we dug round 

 the rocks and settled them about a foot below the 

 surface of the ground ; thus raising, instead of 

 settling the ground, as we should have done by 

 removing the rocks. We carted on gravel, loam 

 and compost enough to cover the ground well, 

 and fill up among the hassocks. What we plowed 

 was planted with corn, potatoes and p-arden 



