rn, they are around,
alert and cautious. In small flocks they circle about, high in the
air, uttering their fine note, or plunge quickly into the tops of
remote trees. Day by day they approach nearer and nearer,
reconnoitring the premises, and watching the growing fruit. Hardly
have the green lobes turned a red cheek to the sun, before their beaks
have scarred it. At first they approach the tree stealthily, on the
side turned from the house, diving quickly into the branches in ones
and twos, while the main flock is ambushed in some shade tree not far
off. They are most apt to commit their depredations very early in the
morning and on cloudy, rainy days. As the cherries grow sweeter the
birds grow bolder, till, from throwing tufts of grass, one has to
throw stones in good earnest, or lose all his fruit. In June they
disappear, following the cherries to the north, where by July they are
nesting in the orchards and cedar groves.

Among the permanent summer residents here (one might say city
residents, as they seem more abundant in town than out), the yellow
warbler or summer yellowbird is conspicuous. He comes about the middle
of April, and seems particularly attached to the silver poplars. In
every street, and all day long, one may hear his thin, sharp warble.
When nesting, the female comes about the yard, pecking at the
clothes-line, and gathering up bits of thread to weave into her nest.

Swallows appear in Washington form the first to the middle of April.
They come twittering along in the way so familiar to every New England
boy. The barn swallow is heard first, followed in a day or two by the
squeaking of the cliff swallow. The chimney swallows, or swifts, are
not far behind, and remain here in large numbers, the whole season.
The purple martins appear in April, as they pass north, and again in
July and August on their return, accompanied by their young.

The national capital is situated in such a vast spread of wild,
wooded, or semi-cultivated country and is in itself so open and
spacious, with its parks and large government reservations, that an
unusual number of birds find their way into it in the course of the
season. Rare warblers, as the black-poll, the yellow-poll, and the
bay-breasted, pausing in May on their northward journey, pursue their
insect game in the very heart of the town.

I have heard the veery thrush in the trees near the White House; and
one rainy April morning, about six o'clock, he came and