BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER. 229 
hill-sides and the lowlands were then still covered with primeval forests. White pines, 
interspersed promiscuously with paper birches, sugar maples, beeches, and lindens pre- 
vailed in the upland woods. During the short summer time almost every morning found 
me on the south side of the lake, on a densely forest clad hill, at the foot of which 
a very clear and cool spring originated. A well-worn foot-path leading to this fountain 
from the house had been there for many years and very probably was formerly an 
Indian trail. It is true what our genial writer, Mr. John Burroughs, says: ‘Indeed, 
of all foot-paths, the spring-path is the most suggestive.”"* I never left this place without 
reluctance during the beautiful summer months, and even now the impression on my mind 
of the pleasure there enjoyed is very vivid. Near this pretty spot trees and shrubs and 
birds seemed to congregate. Here the Veery sang its anthem of morn, and the call 
notes of the Whippoorwill sounded through the calmness of the night. The exquisite 
song of the Rose-breasted Grossbeak, the enchanting eo-lie of the Wood Thrush, and 
the metallic che-wink of the Towhee was always heard. Among Warblers, the Mary- 
land Yellow-throat, the Mourning and Golden-winged Warbler, as well as the Black- 
throated Blue, were common in the low thickets on the border of the lake, while the 
BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER, the subject of this sketch, was a tenant of the 
pines, wherever they were found. Although not common, a few pairs might always be 
found near the lake, and its varied and harmonious strain sounded from the tops of the 
pines from early morning throughout the day. They arrived usually during the second 
week of May, when the shad-bush and the wild crab tree were in full bloom. I have. 
never found a nest, but I am sure that their home finds its limit in the southern border 
of the coniferous region of central Wisconsin. They breed from that line north to 
Hudson’s Bay, and during the migration they are found from the Atlantic to the 
Plains. In south-eastern Texas I noticed their arrival from their winter-quarters in 
Central America about April 20, and they prolonged their stay always to about May 
5, when the last stragglers disappeared. In south-western Missouri they were common 
when the apple trees bloomed, about May 5 to May 10. Near Lake Apopka, in Florida, 
they were seen first April 14. In all the pine and spruce regions of the North the 
Black-throated Green Warbler is, next to the Ovenbird, the most abundant species of 
the family. Like many other Warblers, they subsist almost entirely on insects which 
they collect from the blossoms and leaves of the trees, but in spring they also catch 
many insects in the air. ‘They generally remain in one spot for several minutes, and 
then fly to another at quite a distance, seldom staying long in one group of trees. 
Though active, they are not restless, as many of their kindred are, but rather are com- 
paratively deliberate in their motions. There is to me a fascination in watching these 
birds, as they move among the tree tops, and a charm in listening to their drowsy 
notes, which (without poetical exaggeration) seem to invite one, on a warm day, to 
lie down and slumber on the pine needles that are strewn over the ground. The 
Black-throated Greens are, to me, with perhaps the exception of the Pine Warblers, 
the most attractive members of their family, on account, I think, of their pleasing, 
familiar, and oft-repeated songs, which are heard from the time of their arrival nearly 
throughout the summer, which form so fitting an accompaniment to the whisperings of 
* Pepacton. By John Burroughs, p. 45. 
