Canadian 
Warblers 
in 
unprecedented 
numbers 
Water 
Thrushes 
in dry 
woods on 
an approach to within three or four yards. He spent most 
of his time on the ground, pecking over the soggy dead 
leaves near the edge of the river but once he mounted into 
some alders and flitted from twig to twig, jumping up after 
insects which were clinging to the under sides of the leaves 
above him. 
As I have already said, I saw during the day at 
least 50 Canadian Warblers, a number wholly unprecedented 
in my previous experience. They were simply everywhere in 
the greatest abundance of course in the swamps and dense 
thickets near the river but by no means uncommon on the side 
and even tops of the hills where I noticed several feeding 
high up in' oaks and pines in company with the equally 
numerous Black-polls. It is easy to recognize the Canadian 
Warbler at a distance or in a poor light by his abrupt, 
jerky movements and especially by the frequent, nervous, 
upward twitches of his long tail*J 
The Water ‘Thrushes were also scattered about 
everywhere on the sides and tops of the hills 'in the dryest 
possible situations. That this was due not to individual 
choice but to the cv ercrowding of the swampy thickets was 
, , ., evident, for I repeatedly saw birds fly from the side of 
tops and sides 
of hills 
Ball’s Hill into the thickets along the river and the next 
instant return, hotly pursued by another W§ter Thrush whose 
haunts they had invaded. In other words, each bird in the 
river thickets evidently monopolized and stoutly defended 
a certain portion of those especially choice feeding grounds 
