January, 1920] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



thrcughcut the summer, sometimes until October. 

 The warbling vireo is less common, while the sol- 

 itary and Philadelphia are rare visitors. I have 

 only one record for the latter — August II (1918). 

 It is a beautiful little bird, much smaller than the 

 red-eyed vireo, and with a great deal of greenish- 

 yellow in its make-up. I watched it glide along 

 the elm twigs until it seemed a part of the foliage 

 and melted from view. The pursuit of its prey — the 

 small hairless caterpillars, lying inactive in the 

 curled-up elm leaves — called for a smooth, un- 

 hurried progress. These caterpillars are very at- 

 tractive to other vireos and especially to the Balti- 

 more oriole. 



Flycatchers act much like vireos toward the 

 bath. The wood peewee takes an occasional bath, 

 but more often simply flies from perch to perch, 

 back and forth through the spray. It is loath to 

 remain long away from its beloved perch. Dab- 

 bling in a bath gives opportunity neither to flip its 

 tail nor snap up passing insects. 



Another speedy bather is the ruby-throated hum- 

 mingbird. I have never seen it do more than dive 

 through the spray at the usual rapid gait. The 

 ruby-throat is a color specialist. I have not known 

 it to nest in the garden, but it often visits us during 

 August and September — even as late as Sept. 1 4 ; 

 it is generally found about flowers of a reddish hue. 

 Sometimes late flowering scarlet runners are its ob- 

 jective; again the orange lily is chosen. 



This brings us well into September. 1 he yellow 

 warbler has gone entirely. It disappears suddenly 

 and very regularly about the end of August or dur- 

 ing the first few days of September. As we are 

 near the northern limit of this warbler's range in 

 the east, there are few arrivals from the north to 

 take the place of departing local birds. 



The Maryland Yellow-throat is liable to visit the 

 shrubbery at any time in September, but that is as 

 far as it gets. I have never seen one bathe. Al- 

 though August (in the garden) is essentially a 

 warbler month, there are a few of them that I gen- 

 erally fail to see before September — such as the 

 black-throated blue, black-throated green, and 

 yellow palm warblers. They stay here quite late 

 but the myrtle outcomes and outstays them all. 



If August is a warbler month, then September 

 might be called a sparrow and thrush month. Be- 

 sides the robin and bluebird I have seen four of the 

 true thrushes in my garden — Wilson's, olive-backed, 

 gray-cheeked, and hermit — and all but the gray- 

 cheeked bathed. The robin and the olive-backed 

 thrush are especially fond of a bath and they bathe 

 very thoroughly. The true thrushes arc mild- 

 mannered, but the robin finds the bath all too small 

 to permit of mixed bathing, and generally chases 



other birds away. Some of them are discouraged 

 for a time, but not so with the song sparrow. I 

 have often watched this persistent little fellow dodg- 

 ing in and out, looking for an opening, until the 

 larger birds finally vacated the bath. 



The robin has a far northern range, which is in- 

 dicated by repeated influxes during September and 

 October. One may fail to see them for a time and 

 then some morning the lawn will be dotted with 

 them. The lawn is the robin's market-place. I 

 watched an amusing incident one day. A robin 

 had just pulled a worm from its retreat and landed 

 it safely on the ground when another robin darted 

 up and seized it. It was amusing to see the wild 

 chase that followed. 



The white-crowned sparrow usually arrives abcut 

 Sept. 18, and can often be heard singing a low- 

 voiced song. Never a boisterous singer, its fall song 

 is especially subdued. Most of the sparrows are 

 now in the midst of a song revival, but the songs 

 are usually incomplete and faintly uttered; some- 

 times a mere whisper of the spring song, and at 

 other times quite different from it. As the weather 

 becomes cooler the song often changes in volume 

 and quality until frequently the full spring song is 

 uttered. 



Many birds sing but a portion of the mating song. 

 The Tennessee warbler, for instance, gives only 

 about half of its full song, but it can always bt 

 recognized by the piercing insistence of the climax 

 note. Little appears to be known as to what pro- 

 portion of these unfinished songs is the product of 

 mature and immature birds. Much might be learnec" 

 in regard to subspecific relations from a study o; 

 immature birds' songs. 



About the time of the white-crown's arrival there 

 is an influx of chipping sparrows from the north, 

 and the purple finch is liable to visit the garden al 

 any time in September. Both of these birds arc 

 fond of a bath. Red-breasted nuthatches are seer 

 about Sept. 16, closely followed by the brown 

 creeper, ruby-crowned kinglet, and an occasional 

 winter wren. I have only once seen the winter wren 

 bathe and it scolded all of the time. The creepei 

 is the busiest bird I have ever seen. It is incessantly 

 on the hunt for its daily bread and must consume an 

 immense amount of insect eggs and larvae. Up to 

 the top of one tree and away to the foot of another 

 there is always another tree and never time for a 

 bath. It does not relax even to sing; it is noted foi 

 lis lack of song. I have heard it but once, curiously 

 enough not in the depths of its woodland home, bul 

 in a garden on the main street of St. Lambert, during 

 a drizzling rain— a very sweet song that took m? 

 some time to locate, owing to the ventriloquial qual- 



