BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



351 



diminution in the number of the birds which visited the Fresh Pond Swamps 

 during the succeeding decade. Indeed I have never known them to be more 

 abundant there than they were in September, 1881, and very many were noted 

 during the following autumn, also. Since then I have had no opportunities of 

 looking for them at the proper season, but several of my friends have done so 

 repeatedly without much success. There is, indeed, an impression, rather gen- 

 eral among our local ornithologists, that Connecticut Warblers have not visited 

 the Cambridge Region since 1882 in anything like the numbers in which they 

 occurred previous to that year. If this impression be correct ^ it is difficult to 

 account for the change. It is true that some of the former haunts of the birds 

 in the Fresh Pond region, such as the Pine Swamp, have been long since 

 obliterated by the march of modern improvements, but on the other hand their 

 favorite resort, the Maple Swamp, has remained, up to within a year or two, 

 essentially as it was during the period of their greatest abundance there.^ 



We used to find Connecticut Warblers oftenest among the thickets of 

 clethra, Andromeda lignstrina, shad-bush, and black alder, which formed a dense 

 undergrowth beneath the large maples that shaded the wooded islands of this 

 swamp, and in the beds of touch-me-not {Impatiens) that covered some of its wet- 

 ter portions. They were also given to frequenting the banks of the numerous 

 intersecting ditches, especially where the deadly nightshade, clinging to the stems 

 of the bushes, trailed its gray-green foliage and coral-red berries over the black 

 mud or coffee-colored water. In such places they often literally swarmed, but 

 so retiring and elusive were they that by anyone unacquainted with their habits 

 they might easily have been overlooked. They spent most of their time on the 

 ground under or among the rank vegetation, where they would often remain 

 securely hidden until nearly trodden on. Indeed we learned eventually that the 

 only certain method of starting all the birds that a thicket contained was to beat 

 the place closely and systematically many times in succession. When flushed 

 they would usually fly up into the low bushes and sit there motionless in thrush- 

 like attitudes, gazing at us intently with their large dark eyes. If further dis- 

 turbed, they were nearly sure to take long flights to distant parts of the swamp. 

 During cloudy weather we sometimes found them feeding with Black-poll War- 

 blers in the tops of large willows, fifty or sixty feet above the ground. The 

 earliest date on which they were ever seen by us was September 7 and the last 



1 Since writing the above passage I have learned that in September, 1901, Mr. H. M. Spelman 

 made several visits to the Maple Swamp, and that he started there, on each occasion, from two or 

 three to five or six Connecticut Warblers. This would indicate that the birds may still be found in 

 fair numbers by those who, like Mr. Spelman, are familiar with their haunts and habits. 



2 In the winter of 1904-1905 the Maple Swamp was invaded by wood choppers who cut away 

 many of the thickets and most of the larger trees. 



