102 USEFUL BIRDS. 
who has not listened to their multitudinous notes, as, night 
after night, they have passed overhead, can realize the num- 
bers that sweep through the woods in the spring and fall 
migrations. Those who watched the great flights of War- 
blers during the season of 1905 could but marvel at their 
vast and changing procession. 
One must be in the woods most of the time, during both 
spring and autumn, to form any adequate conception of 
these movements; and even then he may be mystified by 
the sudden changes he will observe. While at Amesbury, 
Mass., on May 11, 1900, I went out at daybreak with a few 
friends who were interested in bird study. As we walked 
through the streets of the village many male Blackburnian 
Warblers were seen among the street trees. A little later 
we saw them all about us in the orchards, their brilliant 
orange breasts flashing in the sunlight. As we approached 
the woods it was everywhere the same. The night had 
been very cold, and other insect-eating birds were seeking 
benumbed insects on or near the ground. There were four 
bright Redstarts flitting about on the upturned sod of a 
newly plowed garden. These and other species of Warblers 
were to be seen in every orchard, wood, and thicket. The 
Blackburnian Warblers had come in during the night, and 
were busy hunting for their breakfasts until 7 o’clock, when 
we went to ours. At 8 o’clock not a single Blackburnian 
was to be seen. I scoured the country until nearly noon, 
finding all the other Warblers as at daybreak, but not a 
Blackburnian could be found. They had done their share 
in the good work, and had passed on. A later riser would 
have missed them. Had we not been afield that morning, 
the flight might have been unrecorded. 
In May most of the smaller birds that pass the summer in 
our northern woods — Thrushes, Warblers, Vireos, Cuckoos, 
Towhees and their kin —arrive, mate, and build their nests. 
In June the growing insect hosts increase, and the activities 
of the parent birds in procuring food for their young are at 
their height. Each occupied nest is a sepulchre for worms, 
spiders, and insects; each young bird’s mouth is an open 
door, yawning for their destruction. The parent birds are 
