VERMONT BIRD CLUB 17 



On the Billings estate in Woodstock such a feeding ground 

 exists, and it is difficult to imagine a more ideal environment. 

 On a little plateau to which winding paths lead, there is a lily 

 pond surrounded by tall spruces. The almost tropical aspect of 

 this spot was rendered more so by the brilliantly hued warblers 

 that 1 saw there last May (1909), in greater numbers than 1 had 

 ever seen before anywhere. 



Black-throated Green and Magnolia Warblers poised and 

 darted from these beautiful branches of the Norway spruces, 

 looking like bits of gold amid the green, pausing long enough in 

 their search for food to sing ecstatically or to twit a note of 

 alarm when the intruder approached. These two species were 

 the most numerous, the tamest and the busiest. The Black- 

 burnians which one always sees with a thrill of delight were 

 there, not in twos or threes but in fives and tens, and the 

 Parulas, shy and distant as they always are, added their jewel- 

 like beauty to the scene. The Black and White, Black-throated 

 Blue and Myrtle kept more in the background, but were very 

 numerous, while the Blackpoll, Yellow Palm, Cape May, Bay- 

 breasted, and Nashville were few in number but rare enough to 

 receive much attention. Among the number was a stranger, a 

 bird with markings of yellow and black about the head and with 

 chestnut rump, this was thought to be the Prairie Warbler. The 

 Yellow Palm Warbler was recorded as early as April 20 and was 

 still here May 5. The Cape May is a rarely beautiful bird, 

 its yellov throat and chestnut eye patch, as well as its white 

 wing bars identifying it, but unlike many warblers, it does not 

 linger during migration more than a day or two. It was inter- 

 esting to note how certain species staid on from day to day 

 while others, restless with the call of their northern homes, 

 sped swiftly on. In a little more than a weeks time the spruces 

 were silent save for the whisper of the winds or for the twitter 

 of a bird that deemed their branches a fit spot for its summer 

 home. 



WARBLERS RECORDED BY THE HARTLAND 

 NATURE CLUB, 1908. 



Black and White, April 28; Nashville, May 6; Tennessee, 

 Sept. 28; Parula, May 4; Cape May, May 4; Summer, May 3; 

 Black-throated Blue, May 4; Black-throated Green, May i; 

 Myrtle, April 30; Magnolia, May 4; Chestnut-sided, May 17; 



