The Birds and Poets 153 



sunlight and the caterpillars feeding in the shade 

 of the leaves know to their sorrow that his erratic 

 course is guided by a purpose." * 



Inasmuch as both the orchard oriole and the red- 

 start are summer residents in this latitude, they are 

 not to be considered among our true migrants, 

 although they migrate southward every summer 

 and northward again to their breeding sites in the 

 spring. 



Among the most abundant of the true migrants, 

 nesting north of this latitude, and observed going 

 south in September, may be mentioned the 

 thrushes, warblers, white-throated, white-crowned, 

 and fox sparrows, juncos, kinglets and nuthatches. 

 This is by no means an inclusive list of our com- 

 mon September migrants, but during this month 

 one will seldom walk into the woods and fields 

 without seeing many of the birds mentioned. One 

 morning during the last week of September I 

 observed on my back lawn and within fifty feet of 

 my back porch a large number of white-throated 

 sparrows scratching about in the dead weeds and 

 grass, a flock of slate-colored juncos, also very busy 

 among the fallen leaves, a brown creeper, a red- 

 breasted nuthatch, a gray-cheeked thrush, a black- 

 throated green warbler, and a golden-crowned 

 kinglet, all of which are September migrants. My 

 yard is perhaps not above the average in attractive- 

 ness to the birds traveling southward, and similar 

 observations may be made almost any morning in 



* Birds of Eastern North America, p. 375. 



