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THE HEMLOCK WARBLER.
Sylvia parus, Wils.
PLATE CXXXIV. Male and Female.
It is to the persevering industry of Wilson that we are indebted for the discovery of this bird. He has briefly described the male, of which he had obtained but a single specimen. Never having met with it until I visited the Great Pine Forest, where that ardent ornithologist found it, I followed his track in my rambles there, and had not spent a week among the gigantic hemlocks which ornament that interesting part of our country, before I procured upwards of twenty specimens. I had therefore a fair opportunity of observing its habits, which I shall now attempt to describe.
The tallest of the hemlock pines are the favourite haunts of this species. It appears first among the highest branches early in May, breeds there, and departs in the beginning of September. Like the Blue Yellow-back Warbler, its station is ever amidst the thickest foliage of the trees, and with as much agility as its diminutive relative, it seeks its food by ascending from one branch to another, examining most carefully the under parts of each leaf as it proceeds. Every insect that escapes is followed on wing, and quickly secured. It now and then, as if for variety or sport, makes a downward flight, alights on a smaller tree, surveys it for a while, and again ascends to a higher station. During the early part of autumn it frequents, with its young, the margins of rivulets, where insects are then more abundant.
Its notes are sweet and mellow, and although not numerous, are easily distinguished from those of any other Warbler. Like a true Sylvia, it is often seen hanging at the end of a branch, searching for insects. It never alights on the trunk of a tree, and in this particular differs from every other species of its genus. Its food is altogether of insects.
To the inimitable skill of the worthy Jediah Irish in the use of the rifle, I am indebted for the possession of a nest of this bird. On discovering one of the birds, we together watched it for hours, and at last had the good fortune to see itself and its mate repeatedly enter a thick cluster of leaves, where we concluded their nest must be placed. The huntsman's
