20 PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



usually builds in the bushes over on the edge of the marsh. 

 In winter this weedy, bushy bog gives good cover and food for 

 flocks of finches. Here gather the Whitethroats, the Juncos, 

 the Song and the Tree Sparrows, while occasionally a few Field 

 Sparrows linger throughout the winter. 



As we pass up the stream, we come to a drier bit of bottom 

 land, yet still thickly overgrown with weeds, bushes and bram- 

 bles. Here the Blue- winged Warbler almost invariably builds, 

 as does the Yellow-breasted Chat. The Cardinal also is apt to 

 frequent this particular part of the valley, and here I always 

 expect to hear the first faint flutings of the Fox Sparrow in the 

 warm winter days of late February. 



Ahead of us the valley now grows narrower ; the hillsides are 

 steeper and more rocky as they draw in closer to the stream, 

 while the water flows more swiftly as we get above the influence 

 of the dam. Rocks protrude here and there from the stream 

 bed and little rapids i;ush musically across the shallows. Here 

 in winter the Carolina Wren and the Winter Wren greet us with 

 their cheerful chatter as they bustle and rummage about the 

 overhanging banks or peer and pry among the twisted roots of 

 trees that stand by the stream side. In the migrations we often 

 get the strident chirp of the Water Thrush, and more rarely the 

 wonderful song. 



The Hooded Warbler is a rare bird in the vicinity of Phila- 

 delphia. In fact I have never seen but two hereabout in all 

 my ornithological experience. On May the 9th, 1885 one 

 flashed before me in some bushes by the stream side in this 

 narrow part of our valley. A light load of dust shot was the 

 means of his finding a resting-place among others of his kind 

 in my collection, gathered from regions where the Hooded is 

 more abundant. Three years passed by all but a day, and on 

 May the 8th, 1888, in an afternoon's stroll I approached the 

 same clump of bushes, and lo another Hooded suddenly ap- 

 peared before me, not two feet from the spot in which I had 

 seen the first one. Is it possible that he sought his long lost 

 brother? If so, his hope was realized; for they now rest side by 

 side. An odd coincidence truly, that the only birds of this 

 .species that I have ever seen in this region should have been 



