PARULA WARBLER. 
Compsothlypis americana CABANIS. 
PLaTe XI. Fic. 1. 
N SOUTH-EASTERN TEXAS, April is the month of fragrance and beauty. At this 
fd time not only the gardens abound in deliciously scented tea roses and gardenias, in 
gorgeous amaryllis and fragrant daffodils, but the woods are made especially attractive 
by the colors and forms of many indigenous flowers. It affords great pleasure to 
ramble about; even the monotonous post-oak woods in Lee County unfold charms which 
our gazing eyes did not expect to behold. The trees, mostly post-oaks, do not stand 
close together. Here and there we find sunny spots where beautiful cacti, especially 
Echinocereus czspitosus, Echinocactus Texensis, Mammillaria applanata and others, 
open their somewhat fugitive but exquisite blossoms. Underneath the trees the ground 
is carpeted with masses of brilliant phlox, fragrant nemastylis, and commelynas, 
together with cooperias, coreopsis, and bunches of soft white wool-plants'. Indeed, 
the flowers are so manifold that lack of room makes it impossible to enumerate 
them. Many of the forest trees are overgrown with grape vines, especially with 
the winter or frost grape, the greenish flowers of which exhale a strong fragrance 
which the gentle breezes carry far through the woods. In many places the irregular 
forms of the post-oaks are densely draped with soft greenish-gray lichens? which hang 
down in graceful festoons, imparting to the landscape a very singular appearance. 
April is also the time when many of our more delicate birds are on their way to their 
northern habitat. Some trees literally swarm with Warblers of different species, and 
peculiar notes and strange forms we may perceive in each walk which leads us through 
stretches of woodland. Thousands of flowers, and great numbers of merry birds, the 
flute-like notes of the Cardinal Grosbeaks, the enchanting song of the Mockingbird and 
the Carolina Wren, lead us to the conclusion that nature can hardly be arrayed with 
more beauty and poetry than is. here displayed to our rapturous delight. 
During my four years’ stay in Texas, rarely a day in April and May passed 
by on which I did not ramble through field and forest. The air at this time of the 
year is exceedingly soft and bracing. On my way to the West Yegua Creek, I had to 
pass a piece of woodland, where the Usnea lichens grew in great luxuriance on almost 
every branch of the post-oaks. Not many birds take up their abode in these lichen- 
covered trees. Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Tufted Titmice, Red-eyed Vireos, Wood Pewees, 
Great-crested Flycatchers, and Mourning Doves form the majority, but the most 
characteristic are the Acadian Flycatcher and the tiny ParuLa WarBLER, also called 
the BLUE YELLOW-BACKED WARBLER, a very attractive and beautiful species. From 
April 20 to Sept. 10, this bird was found to be rather common. — About May 5, I 
noticed its arrival in south-western Missouri, in Wisconsin never before May 10. 
J Gnaphalium, 2 Usnea barbata. 
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