OF NEW ENGLAND. 111 
and the countries beyond ; but, like other migrants, they vary 
greatly in abundance from year to year in certain places, and 
are occasionally quite rare in spring near Boston. They usu- 
ally make their appearance here late in the season, and though 
I have seen them in the middle of May, they generally do not 
arrive before the last week of that month, and then remain 
here, or continue to pass by, throughout the first few days of 
June. They at that time frequent evergreen and hard-wood 
trees indifferently, hunting for insects among both the lower 
and higher branches, and occasionally seizing them in the air. 
They are less gregarious than in the fall of the year, and one 
often sees pairs or individuals, much more often than when 
they are returning, probably because at the time of their spring 
migrations they are mated for the summer. But a very small 
proportion of them pass the summer in Northern New Hamp- 
shire, a larger number being then resident in Northern Maine 
and the majority in Canada and Labrador. They affect exclu- 
sively the woods and forests which contain a great many ever- 
greens, and rarely visit the lightly timbered and more open 
woodland. They return to Eastern Massachusetts in the last 
week of September, and are commonly plentiful during a 
greater part of October. They often frequent pines in prefer- 
ence to all other trees, generally remain among the upper 
branches or in the very tree-tops, and spend most of their time 
in snapping up passing insects, which they sometimes take an 
opportunity to do, whilst moving from one tree to another. 
(d). The ‘“ Black-polls” have soft and loud chips, an un- 
musical trill, shorter than that of the ‘* Chipper,” and three or 
four notes, suggestive of knocking pebbles together. Their 
song is monotonous, weak, and unmusical. It resembles the 
syllables tsi-tsi-tsi-tst-tsi, repeated in a nearly unvarying tone. 
[EE. Autumnal Warbler. (See Appendix E, family Sylvi- 
colidce. ) 
I do not propose to occupy much space in discussing the 
question :—are the Autumnal Warblers mentioned by Wilson, 
Audubon, and Nuttall, the young of ‘Black-poll” or of the 
