Just before we sighted land, imagine our surprise and joy to see a little Blue Yellow-backed Warbler on our mast. It soon flew down to the sail and thence to the deck, where, after a few moments, it felt quite at home. Our sailor caught him, and he was passed around for all to admire and pet. It would nestle in our hands and enjoy the warmth without the least fear. When allowed his freedom, he would hop upon us, fly from one to another, and dart off over the side of the boat as if taking his departure; when lo! back he would come with a fly or moth he had seen over the water and had captured. Several flies were caught in this way. He searched over the whole boat and into the hold for insects. Often he would fly to one or the other of us, as we were lying on the deck, and into our hands and faces, with the utmost familiarity. He received our undivided attention, but could have been no happier than we. Upon reaching shore, amid the confusion of landing we lost sight forever of our pretty friend. _Voice._--The parula warbler has a simple, but to my ears a very distinctive, song. In 1900 I recorded the song in my notes as "_pree-e-e-e-e-e-e, yip_, a somewhat prolonged trill like a pine warbler's, but fainter and more insect-like, ending abruptly in the short _yip_ with a decided emphasis." I have always been able to recognize it by the explosive ending, which I never heard from any other wood warbler. Gerald Thayer wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907) as follows: The Parula is weak-voiced, and its call notes, as far as I know, are slight and barely peculiar; but it has at least three main songs, with great range of variations. All may be recognized, or at least distinguished from the weak songs of the _Dendroicae_, like the Blackburnian and Bay-breast, by their beady, buzzy tones. In phrasing, in everything but tone-quality, certain variations of the Parula's and of the Blackburnian's songs very nearly meet and overlap; but the tell-tale tones remain unchanged,--wheezy and beady in the one, smooth as glass in the other. Commonest of the Northern Parula's three main songs is probably the short, unbroken buzz, uttered on an evenly-ascending scale, and ending abruptly, with a slight accentuation of the final note. Next is that which begins with several notes of the same beady character, but clearly separated, and finishes, likewise on an ascending scale, with a brief congested buzz. The third main song is based on an inversion of the second--a buzz followed by a few separate drawled notes, high-pitched like the buzz-ending of the two other songs. All these vary and intervary perplexingly.