and all belong to the Sparrow family. Most of the
very showy birds belong to tropical countries, where the trees are
always in leaf and there are quantities of orchids and other conspicuous
flowers to attract the eye from the birds themselves.

"This habit of travelling by night has caused a great many of these
beautiful Warblers to lose their lives, for they often fly against
telegraph wires, high steeples, and lighthouse towers, and are killed.
Another danger also besets them--they may come from the South with a bit
of early mild weather, and nearing the Great Lakes meet a storm from the
North, and the food-supply being very scanty, the icy winds overcome
their strength.

"A friend of mine who lives in Wisconsin," continued the Doctor, "has a
garden that slopes down to Geneva Lake. Late one April there came a
windstorm from the northwest, and the next morning the lawn was strewn
with the bodies of hundreds of little Warblers who had become confused
in the darkness and unable to reach shelter.

"You see how many troubles and risks Citizen Bird has to endure at best,
so that we House People should do everything we can to protect him and
make his life among us happy.

"You will have more use for your eyes than your ears, in naming the
Warblers. Their plumage is almost always striking, but their voices are
rather lisping than musical, though they sing pretty little snatches in
the woods; but many of their call-notes sound more like the squeaks and
buzzings of insects and tree-toads than like the voices of birds, and it
will take time and practice before you can distinguish them apart. I
have chosen only half a dozen species to tell you of, from the
half-hundred that rove about the United States. The first, and one that
you are the most likely to see, is the Black-and-white Warbler."

THE BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER

"There are exceptions to everything," said the Doctor, as he pointed to
an old willow tree on the edge of the river woods, where he had taken
the children to look for Warblers. "And the exception among the shy
Warblers of these woods is that sociable little black-and-white fellow
over there, who is creeping and swinging about the branches as if he was
own brother to the Brown Creeper himself. This Black-and-white Warbler
hides his nest in an overturned stump, or on the ground, and you may try
for days in vain, to find one. But at the same time he spends his time
running merrily through the orchard trees, e