264 HOODED WARBLER. 
Georgia to Pennsylvania and some even north to Connecticut. In these mountain 
woods azaleas, mountain laurels, and the fine broad leaves and rich blossoms of the 
rhododendrons add much more to the beauty of the forest than any other tree or shrub. 
In the mountain forests and in the peaty swamps and moist woods, where these 
gorgeous plants grow in luxuriance, we find a large number of highly interesting and 
richly colored birds, imparting to such localities a truly poetical tone. In the mountain 
laurels of southern Connecticut and in the rhododendron swamps of western North 
Carolina the beautiful Black-throated Blue Warbler finds a very congenial home. 
Different Vireos and Flycatchers, Towhees, Summer and Kentucky Warblers, Redstarts, 
Cardinals, Catbirds, Wood Thrushes, and many other birds enliven these localities from 
early morn till the sun fades away in the western sky. Parula Warblers are abundant 
among the trees covered with Usnea lichens. All these songsters fill the beautiful woods 
with their charming music. 
On close observation we notice in the mountain laurel thickets a bird, which seems 
to glow among the dark green foliage. Only a moment we notice it. As it flits to and 
fro, up and down, around and through the bushes in the most rapid and graceful zigzag 
lines, it is difficult to catch a glimpse of it. Anon it alights for a moment. The black 
color of the hood, chin, and breast, the bright yellow of the forehead, the eye-region, 
and the under-parts, the olive-green of the back at once make it cognizable as the 
HoopED WarRBLER. As it preferably selects the kalmias and azaleas for its haunts, it 
might properly be called the Mountain Laurel, or Azalea Warbler. Our poet-ornitholo- 
gist, Mr. John Burroughs, of south-eastern New York, says: “In only one locality, full 
of azalea and swamp honey-suckle, I am always sure of finding the Hooded Warbler;” 
and Prof. Wm. Brewster writes, that he found it sparingly but very generally in the 
rhododendron thickets along streams, ranging to an altitude of at least 3,800 feet in 
the mountains of North Carolina. Dr. Langdon observed the bird on Defeat Mountain, 
in the Chilhowee Mountains of eastern Tennessee, in August. There is no question that it 
there also breeds in the mountain laurel and azalea shrubs. It was found at an altitude of 
4,000 feet, in the heart of a giant spruce and poplar forest. ‘Here, on a gentle slope 
covered with a velvety carpet of moss, partridge-berry vine, and spruce needles, we were 
lulled to rest by the babbling of the waters near the rocky bed of a neighboring trout 
brook (middle fork of Little River); this, with the hoot-to-toot of the Great Horned Owl 
and the notes of a full orchestra of katydids, furnished a symphony eminently appropriate 
to its surroundings.” As the birds foraged for insects, the dark, green carpet of moss and 
partridge-berry vine formed an effective contrast with their light yellow plumage. 
The Hooded Warbler is usually a bird of the swampy thickets overshadowed by 
large trees, and of the shrubbery of the woodland border. Here it inhabits the jungled 
bushes, while its near relative, the American Redstart, prefers the high trees overhead. 
Where its favorite shrubs of the heath family (Ericacee) are missing, it is satisfied with 
snow-berry bushes, viburnum, dogwood, white-thorns, and other shrubs that are apt to 
form thickets. In most localities it does not occur in large numbers, and therefore it is 
much sought for by egg and skin collectors. The summer home of this beautiful bird 
extends from southern Wisconsin and southern New England to Texas and probably to 
Georgia and Alabama. In south-western Missouri I observed a few pairs among the 
