718 
The Birds of May. 
birds, who flirt their tails in your 
face, and plunge out of sight in 
the shrubbery. Many other sorts, 
too, we see and hear, but suspend 
our thought of them until we reach 
the woods; where they will 'again 
cross our path in greater numbers, 
and with more distinguished com- 
pany. 
The dark and lonesome depths of 
the forest primeval are not inhabited 
by many birds. A solitary Creeper, 
Titmouse, or Hemlock Warbler may 
be found in them ; but the great ma- 
jority prefer that open-and-shut sort 
of country, such as is common on the 
outskirts of our Hew-Emdand vil- 
O 
lages. Especially are they fond of 
groves in which many different kinds 
of trees are represented. 
In such a grove, near Pine Hill in 
Medford, one May morning, I noticed 
a little bird , 1 not four inches long, run- 
ning up and down the stem of a young 
sapling. He was half black and half 
white, in narrow stripes, running from 
head to tail. He was foraging for in- 
sects, and seemed to prefer motion 
with his head down to the reverse. 
While watching and admiring his 
movements, I gradually became aware 
of a multitude of other birds, who were 
approaching me from all directions. 
They seemed to emerge from the foli- 
'age of the trees, like creatures of 
imagination rather than reality. They 
ran along the limbs, flitted from 
branch to branch, swung to and fro 
on the twigs, hiding in clusters of 
leaves, swooping through the air for 
insects, or gleaning them out of the 
crevices of the bark, each uttering at 
every other moment his own peculiar 
cry, and, whenever they crossed the 
sunlight, glittering like resplendent 
gems. More colors than the rainbow 
can boast of are represented in their 
1 The Black and "White Creeper. 
plumage. One 1 has an olive-green 
back and golden-yellow throat. His 
song is very melodious, and as stirring 
as a clarionet. Another 2 is clothed in 
green coat, orange-red cap, white vest, 
and knee-breeches, with a black 
Shakspeare collar round an orange- 
yellow throat. Another 8 is a fine 
bluish gray, with a golden crown, and 
golden bands across his wings. Two 
more 4 have yellow crowns, with vari- 
ously mottled bodies ; and perhaps the 
greatest beauty of them all is a slen- 
der little fellow , 4 of not more than four 
or five inches, striped on his head 
with black and orange, and his breast 
a brilliant rosy orange, bounded by 
spots of black. He must not be mis- 
taken for the American Redstart ; who 
comes along presently, and whose 
coat is also of the blackest, with cher- 
ry-colored epaulets and trimmings. 
Then an Indigo-bird looks in at the 
edge of the covert from the huckle- 
berry pasture, where he usually keeps 
himself. He is blue all over, from 
the base of his bill to the tip of his 
tail, but varied lighter and darker, 
and glistening with such green and 
purple reflections as one sees upon 
some ores of copper. His counterpart 
appears in the Summer Redbird ; who 
in his turn is red all over, bright ver- 
milion below and darker above, ac- 
companied by his relative, the Scarlet 
Tanager, than whose scarlet color no 
more vivid red can be imagined, his 
black wings and tail marking, by most 
pointed contrast, the splendor of the 
rest of him. 
There is the same difference be- 
tween the color of a feather on the 
living bird, and one that is dead, that 
there is between a flower growing on 
its stalk, and the same plucked and 
1 Yellow-throated Vireo. 
2 Black-throated Green Warbler. 
8 Golden-winged Warbler. 
4 Blackburnian Warbler. 
