2 
BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL 
Only the tropics surely could boast such gems. With enthusiasm 
now fairly aroused, and animated with the spirit of an explorer, I 
went at once to work to investigate, and in the course of an hour 
or two more my ammunition Avas nearly exhausted, and quite a 
line of poor, lifeless, mutilated little birds lay arranged along the 
old log. Resting my gun against a neighboring tree, I examined 
long and carefully the results of my Avork. Scarcely any two of 
my specimens Avere alike, and as I contemplated in amazement their 
varied forms and coloring, I felt like the discoverer of new world, 
and doubted whether human eyes had ever beheld the like before. 
Finally, the deepening twilight brought an end to my reveries, and, 
collecting my prizes, I took my AA’ay homeward. Taxidermy being 
to me then a sealed book, I had recourse to pepper and salt as pre- 
servatives, but a few hot days settled the matter and proved the 
ruin of my collection. I can recall with sufficient distinctness for 
identification but a single bird of them all, — a fine adult male 
Black-and-Yellow Warbler, which at the time I considered the 
handsomest, and AAffiich I still think cannot be surpassed in beauty 
by any New" England representative of the family. That afternoon 
was an unlucky one for the birds. It laid the foundation for a 
taste that has since caused the destruction of thousands of their 
tribe. 
The Black-and-Yellow Warbler arrives in Massachusetts from the 
South about the 15th of May. During the next tAA’O or three w^eeks 
they are abundant everywhere in congenial localities. WilloAV 
thickets near streams, ponds, and other damp places, suit them 
best, but it is also not unusual to find many in the upland Avoods, 
especially where young pines or other evergreens grow' thickly. 
Their food at this season is exclusively insects, the larger part con- 
sisting of the numerous species of Biptera. The males sing freely, 
especially on Avarm bright mornings. They associate indifferently 
with all the migrating warblers, but not unfrequently I have found 
large flocks composed entirely of members of their own species, and 
in this Avay have seen at least fifty individuals collected in one small 
tract of woodland. By the first of June all excepting a fcAv strag- 
glers have left. If Ave follow them northward, Ave find a few pairs 
passing the summer .on the mountains of Southern Maine and New 
Hampshire. In July, 1875, I found them breeding, in company Avith 
the Blackburnian Warbler [Dendrceca hlackbiirnice), the Snowbird 
{Junco hyemalis), the Golden-crested Kinglet {Regulus satrapa), and 
