INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS
flying and counter-flying, as if to strengthen their wings for the long journey; hordes of them wintering as far south as the Bahamas. The cheery Yellow Warblers disappear from the orchards, and the Veery comes from the moist woods and scratches in the shrubbery.
Now you may look for the numerous Warblers as they pass; but you must be alert, for they go silently and may only stop for a day. The length of time that migrating birds remain varies greatly with different seasons; during some autumns they linger, and then again, without any apparent reason, they hurry along, arriving and departing sometimes the same night, so that you will be unconscious that they have passed at all.
The most conspicuous summer residents that slip away during September, are the Baltimore Orioles, Veeries, Chats, Wood Thrushes, Flycatchers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and Bobolinks. The Chimney Swifts go in the wake of the Swallows, and closely resemble them in habit if not in anatomical structure. We miss these birds of the air sadly, for their beautiful flights are the great feature of early September. The voiceless brown Bobolinks are driven from the shelter of the reeds and marsh-grasses by the gunners, and in early evening, if you go down the lane, their clinking, metallic call can be heard as they fly over. The Wood Thrushes leave quietly; gathering for a week or so in low trees, at this season their only note is a dry chirp resembling the shaking of peas in a sieve. The last of the month the Chickadees emerge and become prominent, and the Juncos arrive in straggling flocks.
The Robins flock in great numbers, and occasionally give a sweet, reminiscent song; the Bluebirds are legion and bustle about, calling, as Burroughs says they do in autumn, "Bermuda! Bermuda!" The Goldfinches are no longer yellow, but you can always distinguish them by their dipping flight. Purple Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds are also gathering, and the Wrens are peeping in and out, but they have forgotten how to scold. The scanty music is furnished chiefly by the faithful Song Sparrow, the
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