THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY. 



27 



abundant in a certain locality one year, and almost 

 unknown the next? Is it weather, food supply or 

 cats ? For instance, the goldfinch, a very common and 

 charming little songster, appeared in our garden but 

 once last year to my knowledge, while this year there 

 have been whole choruses of them in our apple trees, 

 and their bright little black-trimmed yellow bodies 

 have been almost as common as gold robins. On the 

 other hand, the veery, the chewink and the white- 

 throated sparrow, which were running about under 

 our hedge last year, have not visited us this season and 

 I have had to seek them at the Reservoir and the 

 Pumping Station. 



I had the pleasure of making a new warbler ac- 

 quaintance this spring, and, as usual, in our back 

 yard. When I first caught sight of his black and 

 yellow in the choke-cherry thicket, I thought it must 

 be one of the goldfinches or else a Maryland yellow- 

 throat, who has been shouting his "rig-a-jig, rig-a-jig" 

 in our bushes the past month. But a near view 

 showed him to be unusually small, even for a warbler, 

 being only five inches long, and unusually unmarked 

 for that variegated tribe, being simply olive green 

 above, plain yellow below, with a little black cap, as 

 round as a button, on top of his head. I soon identi- 



