12 Brewster oh Birds of Berkshire Countv, Mass. [January 



glistening foliage, the air fairly rang with bird music. Sitting- 

 motionless in the saddle, straining my ears to catch the more dis- 

 tant sounds, as well as to disentangle the nearer ones, I quickly 

 identified the measured chant of the Olive-backed Thrush, the 

 liquid tinkling melody of the Winter Wren, the sweet, gushing- 

 trill of the Mourning Warbler, the wheezy song of the Black- 

 throated Blue Warbler, the ringing whistle of the White- 

 throated Sparrow, the low plaintive note of the Yellow-bellied 

 Flycatcher, and the penetrating call of the Olive-sided Flycatcher, 

 — at least three additions to the summer fauna of Massachusetts 

 within less than as many minutes ! 



After the volume of sound had ebbed to its normal level we 

 pursued our way, pausing often to listen, or dismounting to look 

 for nests, or follow up some shy bird. The latter exertion, how- 

 ever, was scarcely needed, for most of the rarer species were 

 present in such numbers that they were continually in sight or 

 hearing. The Mourning Warblers and Winter Wrens were 

 especially abundant, more so in fact than I have ever seen them 

 elsewhere, and dozens of specimens might have been procured 

 without leaving the path. The Olive-backed Thrushes, Black- 

 throated Blue Warblers, and White-throated Sparrows were also 

 common, but I found, or at least positively identified, only one 

 pair of Yellow-bellied Flycatchers. To this list I shortly added 

 the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, several pairs of which were 

 seen, one feeding young in a nest in one of the larger birch 

 stubs : the Hairy Woodpecker, which proved to be rather com- 

 mon ; and the Fileated W^oodpecker, whose presence was at- 

 tested by its unmistakable ''peck-holes," although none of the 

 birds were actually observed.* 



The species just mentioned were of course not the only ones 

 foiuid here, although many of them were among the most abundant 



* I also find the Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker included in my notes on the 

 following evidence, which, while certainly not strong enough to warrant a positive 

 record, is worth mentioning: We were skirting a swampy tract of spruces spared, for 

 some unaccountable reason, by the lumbermen, when I heard a Woodpecker "drum- 

 ming" on a resonant limb. The next moment it called once or twice, but I could not 

 get a sight at it, although I dismounted and searched the swamp in every direction. 

 That it was a Picoides I have not the slightest doubt, but I am by no means certain as 

 to whether it was arcticus or americanus, the notes of the two species being very 

 similar. The chances of course favor the larger and commoner (as well as perhaps 

 more southern) species, to which, indeed, I referred it without much hesitation at the 

 time. 



