i6o Twelve Months With 



a dead thrush! The aim of all real bird lovers 

 should be to realize the ideal of Emerson, which 

 prompted him to enquire: "Hast thou named all 

 the birds without a gun?" 



As to the vast army of warblers which come 

 back to us in September, they are the same little 

 wood sprites which rejoiced our days in May and 

 June, and the more common ones which may be 

 seen in this latitude have already been mentioned. 

 It should be noted, however, that some migrants 

 have a different route in the fall from that trav- 

 elled in the spring, and this is true with reference 

 to one, at least, of the warblers, viz., the Connecti- 

 cut warbler. This little bird migrates northward 

 in the spring, up the Mississippi Valley, and south- 

 ward in the fall along the Atlantic coast except 

 that a few have been observed in autumn in the 

 area surrounding Chicago. This species is a not 

 uncommon spring migrant, but like the retiring 

 mourning warbler, it is not generally known as a 

 frequent visitor because it is a shy little bird and is 

 seldom found except in the bushy swamps and 

 heavy underbrush, where it is easily overlooked. 



The warblers, at all times more or less puzzling 

 to the bird student because of their diminutive size 

 and their habit of hiding in the dense foliage of the 

 trees, are still more difficult to identify accurately 

 during the autumn migration because of the many 

 birds in juvenal plumage, and because of the molt- 

 ing of the old birds, resulting in marked changes 

 in appearance. 



