UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



winged warbler — a shy bird, that eluded me a 

 long time in an old clearing that had grown up with 

 low bushes. The song first attracted my attention, 

 it is so like in form to that of the black-throated 

 green-back, but in quahty so inferior. The first dis- 

 tant gUmpse of the bird, too, suggested the green- 

 back, so for a time I deceived myself with the notion 

 that it was the green-back with some defect in its 

 vocal organs. A day or two later I heard two of 

 them, and then concluded my inference was a hasty 

 one. Following one of the birds up, I caught sight of 

 its yellow crown, which is much more conspicuous 

 than its yellow wing-bars. Its song is like this, 'n-'re 

 de de de, with a peculiar reedy quality, but not at all 

 musical, falling far short of the clear, sweet, lyrical 

 song of the green-back. Nehrling sees in it a resem- 

 blance to that of the Maryland yellow-throat, but 

 I fail to see any resemblance whatever. 



One appreciates how bright and gay the plumage 

 of many of our warblers is when he sees one of them 

 alight upon the ground. While passing along a wood 

 road in June, a male black-throated green came 

 down out of the hemlocks and sat for a moment on 

 the ground before me. How out of place he looked, 

 like a bit of ribbon or millinery just dropped there! 

 The throat of this warbler always suggests the finest 

 black velvet. Not long after I saw the chestnut- 

 sided warbler do the same thing. We were trying 

 to make it out in a tree by the roadside, when it 

 114 



