WARBLERS. 
99 
wall of a neighboring orchard, I sat down to see wonders of 
course. Hardly was I seated when a company of blackburnians 
alighted all about me. The ground and trees were bright with 
the black and white and yellow of these exquisite beings. Per¬ 
fectly fearless, they flitted everywhere. Did you ever notice the 
peculiar duck shape of the blackburnian’s body, quite full and 
round and tapering almost abruptly to a point at the tail ? 
Next came the parula, with its chick-a-dee like habit of cling¬ 
ing to the extreme end of a branch and looking under the little 
leaves. What tropical beauty could be more gorgeous than the 
blackburnian warbler, or more delicate and dainty in coloring 
than the parula or blue-yellow backed warbler. After these 
came a dozen or more black throated greens, with “ the sweet¬ 
est song that ever stirred a warbler’s throat.” That beautiful 
butterfly, the redstart, visited the tree with his modest little 
mate. One black poll, and pine warblers in plenty. 
The pine warbler is one of the very few warblers I have ever 
seen during the mid-summer months. Usually warblers are so 
very high up in tall trees that it is nearly impossible to locate a 
bird satisfactorily, but I have seen pine warblers near the 
ground, and once on the ground, in August. Next came Nash¬ 
ville and chestnut sided warblers. The Maryland yellow throat 
called and scolded from every berry bush. A magnolia warbler 
alighted long enough for me to notice the placing of the spots 
on the tail, and the peculiar banded look of the tail as seen 
from below. Yellow warblers were also there. These, with the 
oven birds, which were very numerous, made thirteen warblers 
seen in one apple tree during one forenoon. 
During the spring it was my custom to walk down a certain 
path where I spent many hours making the acquaintance of the 
yellow throats. I discovered this particular family while they 
were building their little home. They chose a very small scrub 
oak, not over fifteen inches high, and under a particularly large 
leaf built their nest of fine grass and lined it with horsehair. 
Madam laid five little white eggs, thinly marked with amber 
spots at the large end. While she was setting he spent con- 
