BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 313 



Nnttall thought was never seen in this State, is ascertained to 

 be one of our visiters by Mr. James Eliot Cabot, who shot one 

 of th:.uii in Cambridge. 



The Nashville Warbler, Sylvia ruhricapilla, is placed 

 among our birds by Mr. Samuel Cabot, Jr., who obtained a 

 specimen in Brookline. Audubon states that three or four, 

 found in Louisiana and Kentucky, are all that he ever saw. 



Swainson's Warbler, Sylv'.a Sioainsonii, has been found 

 by Mr. Cabot, within the limits of our State. 



The Orange colored Warbler, Sylvia celata, probably 

 passes through the State on its way to the eastern parts of 

 Maine and the British Provinces, where it builds and rears its 

 young : but it is not ascertained that any one has yet been 

 discovered here. 



Roscoe's Yellow-throat. Sylvia Roscoe^ so much resem- 

 bles the Maryland Yellow-thioat, that Audubon, the discoverer, 

 at first through it only an accidental variety of that species. 

 Nuttall says that it is seen in Massachusetts at the close of 

 summer, and his impression is that it breeds here. 



Before leaving the subject of warblers, I may be permitted 

 to say how much we are under obligation to them ; not as a 

 plea in their behalf, since their diminutive size protects them. 

 They are too small to be valued for food, or to afford the re- 

 quisite degree of excitement to the sportsm.an. We are told 

 by travellers, that the scenery of Spain seems lifeless and 

 heavy, from the want of singing birds ; ours, on the contrary, 

 is animated with the voices and lighted up with the plumage 

 of these little birds, most of which are as beautiful in colors as 

 they are sweet in their song. From a circumstance mentioned 

 by Audubon, one can easily estimate the importance of their 

 services. He says that he found more than fifty insects in the 

 crops of only two of them. Millions remain in the United 

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