TWO RARE WARBLERS. 



Of all our native birds, the warblers are the most 

 difficult to identify. They are so tiny, being little 

 more than five inches in length, and so incessantly 

 active, that, despite their exquisite coloring, the casual 

 observer never sees them. But once become ac- 

 quainted with one of the fascinating fire-flies (that 

 seems an appropriate name for anything so brilliant 

 and elusive), and you will never rest until you know 

 the twenty-nine or more varieties we may expect to 

 see about Concord. Do not hope to be entranced by 

 their melody, for they are called warblers apparently 

 because they do not sing. Here are two rare ones, 

 which I saw for the first time in 1905. 



Just after supper on May 17, one of those cold, 

 gray nights, which made the third week of this month 

 so depressing, I noticed from the window a new bird 

 in the hedge. I was sure that he was a warbler. Just 

 how I knew that he was new I cannot say, except by 

 his entire lack of bars and blotches. The warblers as 

 a rule are a ring-streaked and speckled tribe, and this 

 bird was more Quakerish than a vireo or a flycatcher. 

 He was very tame, or rather he was feeding so indus- 



