34 PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



Hermit Thrush gently swept the silver strings of his high- 

 pitched harp. I came upon him as I started out to the road 

 and I followed him as he flew from tree to tree, resting on a 

 dead limb every twenty paces, to tilt gently his tail and to 

 touch again those silver-ringing strings. 



Again before I left I was to come on another gathering of 

 warblers. A little before seven o'clock on the morning of 

 August 6 I went down into the glen of the Buck Hill stream. 

 I followed the drive down to where rhododendron thicket and 

 open woods meet within hearing of the falling water. I had 

 sat here only a few minutes when I heard chickadees, which 

 proved to be the heralds of a little warbler host. In another 

 few minutes they were all about me, playing their various roles 

 of flycatcher, creeper, vireo, — all of whose ways are in the 

 repertoire of the warblers. First I identified a Magnolia ; then 

 the little fellows, with two yellow wingbars, green back and 

 gray breast, I took to be young Chestnut-sided Warblers. 

 Among these was another fellow, similar save he had but one 

 white wingbar and was yellower beneath. Canadian Warblers 

 were very numerous and one soon sang his full song from a 

 laurel not ten feet from me. Redstarts in dull plumage flirted 

 by higher up in the trees and a Black-throated Blue sent out 

 his full complement of nasal notes. Black and White Creepers 

 were present, too, and, gradually, increased to profusion. 

 They sang, tszitted, and worked over everything from ground to 

 tree tops. There was no cessation of the song of the Black and 

 White Creepers and Canadian Warblers, and every once in 

 awhile a Redstart would sing. The Blackthroat was least 

 noisy of them all. 



What was this movement? There were fully two hundred 

 birds in all in it, — I counted over a hundred as they crossed the 

 road southward and I noted as I counted that very few re- 

 crossed again northward. This is a far greater number than 

 you would see here, at least together, in June or July. Was it 

 an assembly for migration ? Against this theory is the fact that 

 in previous years I had found Blackthroats and Black and 

 White Creepers here in September. Perhaps it was the late 

 summer flocking that precedes migration with most birds. 



