36 



BIRDS AND FLOWERS. 



little black-poll warbler, who was new to me, though 

 I had almost laid my hand many times this spring on 

 his near relative, the black and white creeper, who is 

 similarly attired in half mourning. 



On May 14 the Wild Flower Club in climbing Eat- 

 tlesnake Hill, saw the black-throated green and the 

 black-throated blue warblers, the rare magnolia war- 

 bler with his ashen crown and bright yellow breast 

 striped with black and the beautiful solitary vireo. 

 In the pasture on the summit we found the red-billed 

 field sparrow and a little striped what-is-it skurrying 

 through the grass, which nobody has been able to 

 identify. (I think now, 1903, that it was the northern 

 water-thrush that we saw.) I first noticed the saucy 

 catbirds that day, though they are usually due in 

 our hedge about the tenth of May. The chickadees 

 and woodpeckers were omnipresent, as usual, and we 

 stirred up some partridges, as we nearly always do 

 on our tramps. 



On May 17 in a swamp on the north side of Frank- 

 lin street I again saw the solitary vireo, also the wood 

 thrush, beside the yellow warbler and a dozen other 

 kinds which had grown quite familiar. The oven 

 bird was shouting ' 'teacher, teacher," at the top of 

 his voice, but I did not see him. The wood thrush is 



