UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



With tail slightly raised and spread, and wings a 

 little drooping, he springs and swoops here and 

 there in the trees — a bit of black holding and 

 momentarily revealing a flame of orange. Redstart 

 is a good name for him, as we see his colors only 

 when he is in motion. Note our other black-and- 

 orange bird, the Baltimore oriole; its color is con- 

 spicuous while the bird is at rest. Another bril- 

 liantly colored bird, the scarlet tanager, is seen 

 from afar when quietly perched. He shows amid 

 the green leaves like a burning coal; and his mo- 

 tions are all slow and deliberate when contrasted with 

 those of the redstart. The latter is a fly-catcher, 

 or insect-catcher, and his movements are neces- 

 sarily sudden and rapid. 



The birds are quite likely to go in troops in late 

 summer or early fall, different species apparently 

 being drawn along by a common impulse. 



While the robins and the hermit thrush are among 

 the choke-cherries, a family of indigo-birds, five or 

 six of them, all of the brown color of the mother 

 bird, are grouped around the mother on a flat stone 

 for half a minute, being fed. It is a pretty little 

 tableau. The father bird with his bright plumage 

 is not in evidence. In one of the trees another 

 warbler which I cannot identify, with an olive 

 back and a yellow front, is in a great hurry about 

 its own business. One little olive-green warbler, 

 doubtless a young bird, comes and perches on the 

 6 



