140 WAKE-ROBIN 
flocks they circle about, high in air, uttering their 
fine note, or plunge quickly into the tops of remote 
trees. Day by day they approach nearer and nearer, 
reconnoitring the premises, and watching the grow- 
ing fruit. Hardly have the green lobes turned a 
red cheek to the sun before their beaks have scarred 
it. At first they approach the tree stealthily, on 
the side turned from the house, diving quickly into 
the branches in ones and twos, while the main flock 
is ambushed in some shade-tree not far off. They 
are most apt to commit their depredations very early 
in the morning and on cloudy, rainy days. As the 
cherries grow sweeter the birds grow bolder, till, 
from throwing tufts of grass, one has to throw 
stones in good earnest, or lose all his fruit. In 
June they disappear, following the cherries to the 
north, where by July they are nesting in the or- 
chards and cedar groves. 
Among the permanent summer residents here 
(one might say city residents, as they seem more 
abundant in town than out), the yellow warbler or 
summer yellowbird is conspicuous. He comes about 
the middle of April, and seems particularly attached 
to the silver poplars. In every street, and all day 
long, one may hear his thin, sharp warble. When 
nesting, the female comes about the yard, pecking 
at the clothes-line, and gathering up bits of thread 
to weave into her nest. 
Swallows appear in Washington from the first to 
the middle of April. They come twittering along 
in the way so familiar to every New England boy. 
