10 



and: space, so that as warblers we will 

 deal with them briefly as a family. 



These gay and lively little feathered 

 gems of the avian world are at once the 

 delight and consternation of the field 

 naturalist. Long after other groups are 

 mastered there remain unsolved problems 

 among the warblers. The variety of 

 species is great, but equally great is the 

 variety of plumage and song in the in- 

 dividual, in many cases making identi- 

 fication not only difficult but often im- 

 possible without collecting. 



The warblers move in a body; are 

 here to-day and gone to-morrow, and 

 the blending of their varied and musical 

 voices in chorus in the spring woods as 

 the spangled choristers flit everywhere 

 about, is as the harmony of invisible 

 choirs. 



The ventriloquil powers of the jay 

 have been referred to, but he is not the 

 only possessor of these powers, and the 

 location of singers thus qualified is ren- 

 dered exceedingly difficult. 



The aesthetic and refined little oven- 

 bird, who, as you roam through the 

 deep woods, opens up apparently at a 

 considerable distance his chant of 

 "Teacher, Teacher, Teacher, TEACH- 

 ER, TEACHER" each repetition grow- 

 ing in volume, concluding within a few 

 yards of you and causing the woods to 

 resound amazingly for the size of the bird. 

 You have heard his chant, but have you 

 heard his love song? He has one, but 

 is more exclusive with his audience. In 

 the evening during the mating season, as 

 silence reigns about his home, he will 

 soar to the tree tops, and, floating down, 

 pour forth a rapid ecstatic warble en- 

 tirely different from his teacher chant, 

 and which needs to be heard to be ap- 

 preciated, and once heard is not for- 

 gotten. 



sEPSPfc 



Water Thrush. 

 (Seiurus 



strain of the fierce harmony of the ele- 

 ments, is the water- 

 thrush, and you must 

 go to his home where 

 the babbling stream 

 splashes the sides of 

 his fair partner's nest 

 in the solitudes of the 

 woods if you would 

 hear his ecstatic wild 

 melody and, hearing, 

 you will consider the novaboracensis.) 

 reward worthy of the 

 effort. 



While most bird songs are character- 

 istic and original or imitative for pur- 

 poses of individual gain, the songs of 

 the catbird and thrasher are a combin- 

 ation of the mere musical portions of 

 msny native bird songs and those of 

 southern species, with some strains of 

 species never seen nor heard by the 

 bird but which are inherited strains. 

 These are frequently intermingled with 

 the scream of a hawk or the cry of a 

 bird in distress. 



I never could 

 agree that for 

 variety and 

 purity of tone 

 the songs o f 

 'he catbird 

 were excelled 

 by the idolized 

 mocking - bird. 

 The song of 

 the thrasher 

 differs only in 

 volume and 

 force. Cat-bird. 



The songs of The Canadian Mocking-bird, 

 the wrens are ( Galeosc °P tes carolinensis.) 

 characterized as 



" Babble, squeak and chatter," and one 

 cannot watch one of these models of 



A Group of Warblers. 



Magnolia Warbler. Black and White Myrtle Warbler. Black-poll Warbler. 

 (Dendroica Warbler. (Dendroica (Dendroica 



maculosa.) (Mniotilta varia.) pennsylvanica.) coronata.) 



Another musician of the wild, untam- 

 able type, whose music seems to be a 



perpetual motion without wondering 

 where lies the source of so much energy, 



