To get a
good view of him you have only to sit down in his haunts, as in such
cases he seems equally anxious to get a good view of you.

From those tall hemlocks proceeds a very fine insect-like warble,
and occasionally I see a spray tremble, or catch the flit of a wing.
I watch and watch till my head grows dizzy and my neck is in danger
of permanent displacement, and still do not get a good view.
Presently the bird darts, or, as it seems, falls down a few feet in
pursuit of a fly or a moth, and I see the whole of it, but in the
dim light am undecided. It is for such emergencies that I have
brought my gun. A bird in the hand is worth half a dozen in the
bush, even for ornithological purposes; and no sure and rapid
progress can be made in the study without taking life, without
procuring specimens. This bird is a warbler, plainly enough, from
his habits and manner; but what kind of warbler? Look on him and
name him: a deep orange or flame-colored throat and breast; the same
color showing also in a line over the eye and in his crown; back
variegated black and white. The female is less marked and brilliant.
The orange-throated warbler would seem to be his right name, his
characteristic cognomen; but no, he is doomed to wear the name of
some discoverer, perhaps the first who rifled his nest or robbed him
of his mate,--Blackburn; hence Blackburnian warbler. The _burn_
seems appropriate enough, for in these dark evergreens his throat
and breast show like flame. He has a very fine warble, suggesting
that of the redstart, but not especially musical. I find him in no
other woods in this vicinity.

I am attracted by another warble in the same locality, and
experience a like difficulty in getting a good view of the author of
it. It is quite a noticeable strain, sharp and sibilant, and sounds
well amid the old trees. In the upland woods of beech and maple it
is a more familiar sound than in these solitudes. On taking the bird
in hand, one cannot help exclaiming, "How beautiful!" So tiny and
elegant, the smallest of the warblers; a delicate blue back, with a
slight bronze-colored triangular spot between the shoulders; upper
mandible black; lower mandible yellow as gold; throat yellow,
becoming a dark bronze on the breast. Blue yellow-back he is called,
though the yellow is much nearer a bronze. He is remarkably delicate
and beautiful,--the handsomest as he is the smallest of the warblers
known to me. It is never without surprise t