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diff --git a/28019-8.txt b/28019-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4fc21d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/28019-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6696 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Birds in the Bush, by Bradford Torrey + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Birds in the Bush + + +Author: Bradford Torrey + + + +Release Date: February 7, 2009 [eBook #28019] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRDS IN THE BUSH*** + + +E-text prepared by Robin Monks, Joseph Cooper, Leonard Johnson, and the +Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +BIRDS IN THE BUSH + +by + +BRADFORD TORREY + +Sixth Edition + + + + + + + +Boston +Houghton, Mifflin and Company +New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street +The Riverside Press, Cambridge +1893 + +Copyright, 1885, +by Bradford Torrey +All rights reserved. + +The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. +Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company. + + + + +Wherefore, let me intreat you to read it with favour and attention, and +to pardon us, wherein we may seem to come short of some words, which we +have laboured to interpret. + +_The Prologue of the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + ON BOSTON COMMON 1 + + BIRD-SONGS 31 + + CHARACTER IN FEATHERS 53 + + IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS 75 + + PHILLIDA AND CORIDON 103 + + SCRAPING ACQUAINTANCE 129 + + MINOR SONGSTERS 155 + + WINTER BIRDS ABOUT BOSTON 185 + + A BIRD-LOVER'S APRIL 211 + + AN OWL'S HEAD HOLIDAY 243 + + A MONTH'S MUSIC 277 + + + + + ON BOSTON COMMON. + + Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room; + And hermits are contented with their cells; + And students with their pensive citadels: + Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom, + Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom, + High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells, + Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells: + In truth, the prison unto which we doom + Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me, + In sundry moods 't was pastime to be bound + Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground; + Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be) + Who have felt the weight of too much liberty, + Should find brief solace there, as I have found. + + WORDSWORTH. + + + ON BOSTON COMMON. + + +Our Common and Garden are not an ideal field of operations for the +student of birds. No doubt they are rather straitened and public. Other +things being equal, a modest ornithologist would prefer a place where he +could stand still and look up without becoming himself a gazing-stock. +But "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps;" and if we are +appointed to take our daily exercise in a city park, we shall very +likely find its narrow limits not destitute of some partial +compensations. This, at least, may be depended upon,--our +disappointments will be on the right side of the account; we shall see +more than we have anticipated rather than less, and so our pleasures +will, as it were, come to us double. I recall, for example, the +heightened interest with which I beheld my first Boston cat-bird; +standing on the back of one of the seats in the Garden, steadying +himself with oscillations of his tail,--a conveniently long +balance-pole,--while he peeped curiously down into a geranium bed, +within the leafy seclusion of which he presently disappeared. He was +nothing but a cat-bird; if I had seen him in the country I should have +passed him by without a second glance; but here, at the base of the +Everett statue, he looked, somehow, like a bird of another feather. +Since then, it is true, I have learned that his occasional presence with +us in the season of the semi-annual migration is not a matter for +astonishment. At that time, however, I was happily more ignorant; and +therefore, as I say, my pleasure was twofold,--the pleasure, that is, of +the bird's society and of the surprise. + +There are plenty of people, I am aware, who assert that there are no +longer any native birds in our city grounds,--or, at the most, only a +few robins. Formerly things were different, they have heard, but now the +abominable English sparrows monopolize every nook and corner. These wise +persons speak with an air of positiveness, and doubtless ought to know +whereof they affirm. Hath not a Bostonian eyes? And doth he not cross +the Common every day? But it is proverbially hard to prove a negative; +and some of us, with no thought of being cynical, have ceased to put +unqualified trust in other people's eyesight,--especially since we have +found our own to fall a little short of absolute infallibility. My own +vision, by the way, is reasonably good, if I may say so; at any rate I +am not stone-blind. Yet here have I been perambulating the Public Garden +for an indefinite period, without seeing the first trace of a +field-mouse or a shrew. I should have been in excellent company had I +begun long ago to maintain that no such animals exist within our +precincts. But the other day a butcher-bird made us a flying call, and +almost the first thing he did was to catch one of these same furry +dainties and spit it upon a thorn, where anon I found him devouring it. +I would not appear to boast; but really, when I saw what Collurio had +done, it did not so much as occur to me to quarrel with him because he +had discovered in half an hour what I had overlooked for ten years. On +the contrary I hastened to pay him a heart-felt compliment upon his +indisputable sagacity and keenness as a natural historian;--a measure of +magnanimity easily enough afforded, since however the shrike might excel +me at one point, there could be no question on the whole of my +immeasurable superiority. And I cherish the hope that my fellow +townsmen, who, as they insist, never themselves see any birds whatever +in the Garden and Common (their attention being taken up with matters +more important), may be disposed to exercise a similar forbearance +toward me, when I modestly profess that within the last seven or eight +years I have watched there some thousands of specimens, representing not +far from seventy species. + +Of course the principal part of all the birds to be found in such a +place are transient visitors merely. In the long spring and autumn +journeys it will all the time be happening that more or less of the +travelers alight here for rest and refreshment. Now it is only a +straggler or two; now a considerable flock of some one species; and now +a miscellaneous collection of perhaps a dozen sorts. + +One of the first things to strike the observer is the uniformity with +which such pilgrims arrive during the night. He goes his rounds late in +the afternoon, and there is, no sign of anything unusual; but the next +morning the grounds are populous,--thrushes, finches, warblers, and what +not. And as they come in the dark, so also do they go away again. With +rare exceptions you may follow them up never so closely, and they will +do nothing more than fly from tree to tree, or out of one clump of +shrubbery into another. Once in a great while, under some special +provocation, they threaten a longer flight; but on getting high enough +to see the unbroken array of roofs, on every side they speedily grow +confused, and after a few shiftings of their course dive hurriedly into +the nearest tree. It was a mistake their stopping here in the first +place; but once here, there is nothing for it save to put up with the +discomforts of the situation till after sunset. Then, please heaven, +they will be off, praying never to find themselves again in such a +Babel. + +That most of our smaller birds migrate by night is by this time too well +established to need corroboration; but if the student wishes to assure +himself of the fact at first hand, he may easily do it by one or two +seasons' observations in our Common,--or, I suppose, in any like +inclosure. And if he be blest with an ornithologically educated ear, he +may still further confirm his faith by standing on Beacon Hill in the +evening--as I myself have often done--and listening to the _chips_ of +warblers, or the _tseeps_ of sparrows, as these little wanderers, hour +after hour, pass through the darkness over the city. Why the birds +follow this plan, what advantages they gain or what perils they avoid by +making their flight nocturnal, is a question with which our inquisitive +friend will perhaps find greater difficulty. I should be glad, for one, +to hear his explanation. + +As a rule, our visitors tarry with us for two or three days; at least I +have noticed that to be true in many cases where their numbers, or +size, or rarity made it possible to be reasonably certain when the +arrival and departure took place; and in so very limited a field it is +of course comparatively easy to keep track of the same individual during +his stay, and, so to speak, become acquainted with him. I remember with +interest several such acquaintanceships. + +One of these was with a yellow-bellied woodpecker, the first I had ever +seen. He made his appearance one morning in October, along with a +company of chickadees and other birds, and at once took up his quarters +on a maple-tree near the Ether monument. I watched his movements for +some time, and at noon, happening to be in the same place again, found +him still there. And there he remained four days. I went to look at him +several times daily, and almost always found him either on the maple or +on a tulip tree a few yards distant. Without question the sweetness of +maple sap was known to _Sphyropicus varius_ long before our human +ancestors discovered it, and this particular bird, to judge from his +actions, must have been a genuine connoisseur; at all events he seemed +to recognize our Boston tree as of a sort not to be met with every day, +although to my less critical sense it was nothing but an ordinary +specimen of the common _Acer dasycarpum_. He was extremely industrious, +as is the custom of his family, and paid no attention to the children +playing about, or to the men who sat under his tree, with the back of +their seat resting against the trunk. As for the children's noise, he +likely enough enjoyed it; for he is a noisy fellow himself and famous as +a drummer. An aged clergyman in Washington told me--in accents half +pathetic, half revengeful--that at a certain time of the year he could +scarcely read his Bible on Sunday mornings, because of the racket which +this woodpecker made hammering on the tin roof overhead. + +Another of my acquaintances was of a very different type, a female +Maryland yellow-throat. This lovely creature, a most exquisite, dainty +bit of bird flesh, was in the Garden all by herself on the 6th of +October, when the great majority of her relatives must have been already +well on their way toward the sunny South. She appeared to be perfectly +contented, and allowed me to watch her closely, only scolding mildly now +and then when I became too inquisitive. How I did admire her bravery and +peace of mind; feeding so quietly, with that long, lonesome journey +before her, and the cold weather coming on! No wonder the Great Teacher +pointed his lesson of trust with the injunction, "Behold the fowls of +the air." + +A passenger even worse belated than this warbler was a chipping sparrow +that I found hopping about the edge of the Beacon Street Mall on the 6th +of December, seven or eight weeks after all chippers were supposed to be +south of Mason and Dixon's line. Some accident had detained him +doubtless; but he showed no signs of worry or haste, as I walked round +him, scrutinizing every feather, lest he should be some tree sparrow +traveling in disguise. + +There is not much to attract birds to the Common in the winter, since we +offer them neither evergreens for shelter nor weed patches for a +granary. I said to one of the gardeners that I thought it a pity, on +this account, that some of the plants, especially the zinnias and +marigolds, were not left to go to seed. A little untidiness, in so good +a cause, could hardly be taken amiss by even the most fastidious +taxpayer. He replied that it would be of no use; we hadn't any birds +now, and we shouldn't have any so long as the English sparrows were here +to drive them away. But it would be of use, notwithstanding; and +certainly it would afford a pleasure to many people to see flocks of +goldfinches, red-poll linnets, tree sparrows, and possibly of the +beautiful snow buntings, feeding in the Garden in midwinter. + +Even as things are, however, the cold season is sure to bring us a few +butcher-birds. These come on business, and are now welcomed as public +benefactors, though formerly our sparrow-loving municipal authorities +thought it their duty to shoot them. They travel singly, as a rule, and +sometimes the same bird will be here for several weeks together. Then +you will have no trouble about finding here and there in the hawthorn +trees pleasing evidences of his activity and address. Collurio is +brought up to be in love with his work. In his Mother Goose it is +written,-- + + Fe, fi, fo, farrow! + I smell the blood of an English sparrow; + +and however long he may live, he never forgets his early training. His +days, as the poet says, are "bound each to each by natural piety." Happy +lot! wherein duty and conscience go ever hand in hand; for whose +possessor + + "Love is an unerring light, + And joy its own security." + +In appearance the shrike resembles the mocking-bird. Indeed, a policeman +whom I found staring at one would have it that he _was_ a mocking-bird. +"Don't you _see_ he is? And he's been singing, too." I had nothing to +say against the singing, since the shrike will often twitter by the +half hour in the very coldest weather. But further discussion concerning +the bird's identity was soon rendered needless; for, while we were +talking, along came a sparrow, and dropped carelessly into a hawthorn +bush, right under the shrike's perch. The latter was all attention +instantly, and, after waiting till the sparrow had moved a little out of +the thick of the branches, down he pounced. He missed his aim, or the +sparrow was too quick for him, and although he made a second swoop, and +followed that by a hot chase, he speedily came back without his prey. +This little exertion, however, seemed to have provoked his appetite; +for, instead of resuming his coffee-tree perch, he went into the +hawthorn, and began to feed upon the carcass of a bird which, it seemed, +he had previously laid up in store. He was soon frightened off for a few +moments by the approach of a third man, and the policeman improved the +opportunity to visit the bush and bring away his breakfast. When the +fellow returned and found his table empty, he did not manifest the +slightest disappointment (the shrike never does; he is a fatalist, I +think); but in order to see what he would do, the policeman tossed the +body to him. It lodged on one of the outer twigs, and immediately the +shrike came for it; at the same time spreading his beautifully bordered +tail and screaming loudly. Whether these demonstrations were intended to +express delight, or anger, or contempt, I could not judge; but he seized +the body, carried it back to its old place, drove it again upon the +thorn, and proceeded to devour it more voraciously than ever, scattering +the feathers about in a lively way as he tore it to pieces. The third +man, who had never before seen such a thing, stepped up within reach of +the bush, and eyed the performance at his leisure, the shrike not +deigning to mind him in the least. A few mornings later the same bird +gave me another and more amusing exhibition of his nonchalance. He was +singing from the top of our one small larch-tree, and I had stopped near +the bridge to look and listen, when a milkman entered at the +Commonwealth Avenue gate, both hands full of cans, and, without noticing +the shrike, walked straight under the tree. Just then, however, he heard +the notes overhead, and, looking up, saw the bird. As if not knowing +what to make of the creature's assurance, he stared at him for a moment, +and then, putting down his load, he seized the trunk with both hands, +and gave it a good shake. But the bird only took a fresh hold; and when +the man let go, and stepped back to look up, there he sat, to all +appearance as unconcerned as if nothing had happened. Not to be so +easily beaten, the man grasped the trunk again, and shook it harder than +before; and this time Collurio seemed to think the joke had been carried +far enough, for he took wing, and flew to another part of the Garden. +The bravado of the butcher-bird is great, but it is not unlimited. I saw +him, one day, shuffling along a branch in a very nervous, unshrikely +fashion, and was at a loss to account for his unusual demeanor till I +caught sight of a low-flying hawk sweeping over the tree. Every +creature, no matter how brave, has some other creature to be afraid of; +otherwise, how would the world get on? + +The advent of spring is usually announced during the first week of +March, sometimes by the robins, sometimes by the bluebirds. The latter, +it should be remarked, are an exception to the rule that our spring and +autumn callers arrive and depart in the night. My impression is that +their migrations are ordinarily accomplished by daylight. At all events +I have often seen them enter the Common, alight for a few minutes, and +then start off again; while I have never known them to settle down for a +visit of two or three days, in the manner of most other species. This +last peculiarity may be owing to the fact that the European sparrows +treat them with even more than their customary measure of incivility, +till the poor wayfarers have literally no rest for the soles of their +feet. They breed by choice in just such miniature meeting-houses as our +city fathers have provided so plentifully for their foreign _protégés_; +and probably the latter, being aware of this, feel it necessary to +discourage at the outset any idea which these blue-coated American +interlopers may have begun to entertain of settling in Boston for the +summer. + +The robins may be said to be abundant with us for more than half the +year; but they are especially numerous for a month or two early in the +season. I have counted more than thirty feeding at once in the lower +half of the parade ground, and at nightfall have seen forty at roost in +one tree, with half as many more in the tree adjoining. They grow +extremely noisy about sunset, filling the air with songs, cackles, and +screams, till even the most stolid citizen pauses a moment to look up at +the authors of so much clamor. + +By the middle of March the song sparrows begin to appear, and for a +month after this they furnish delightful music daily. I have heard them +caroling with all cheerfulness in the midst of a driving snow-storm. The +dear little optimists! They never doubt that the sun is on their side. +Of necessity they go elsewhere to find nests for themselves, where they +may lay their young; for they build on the ground, and a lawn which is +mowed every two or three days would be quite out of the question. + +At the best, a public park is not a favorable spot in which to study +bird music. Species that spend the summer here, like the robin, the +warbling vireo, the red-eyed vireo, the chipper, the goldfinch, and the +Baltimore oriole, of course sing freely; but the much larger number +which merely drop in upon us by the way are busy feeding during their +brief sojourn, and besides are kept in a state of greater or less +excitement by the frequent approach of passers-by. Nevertheless, I once +heard a bobolink sing in our Garden (the only one I ever saw there), and +once a brown thrush, although neither was sufficiently at home to do +himself justice. The "Peabody" song of the white-throated sparrows is to +be heard occasionally during both migrations. It is the more welcome in +such a place, because, to my ears at least, it is one of the wildest of +all bird notes; it is among the last to be heard at night in the White +Mountain woods, as well as one of the last to die away beneath you as +you climb the higher peaks. On the Crawford bridle path, for instance, I +remember that the song of this bird and that of the gray-cheeked +thrush[1] were heard all along the ridge from Mount Clinton to Mount +Washington. The finest bird concert I ever attended in Boston was given +on Monument Hill by a great chorus of fox-colored sparrows, one morning +in April. A high wind had been blowing during the night, and the moment +I entered the Common I discovered that there had been an extraordinary +arrival of birds, of various species. The parade ground was full of +snow-birds, while the hill was covered with fox-sparrows,--hundreds of +them, I thought, and many of them in full song. It was a royal concert, +but the audience, I am sorry to say, was small. It is unfortunate, in +some aspects of the case, that birds have never learned that a _matinée_ +ought to begin at two o'clock in the afternoon. + +These sparrows please me by their lordly treatment of their European +cousins. One in particular, who was holding his ground against three of +the Britishers, moved me almost to the point of giving him three cheers. + +Of late a few crow blackbirds have taken to building their nests in one +corner of our domain; and they attract at least their full share of +attention, as they strut about the lawns in their glossy clerical suits. +One of the gardeners tells me that they sometimes kill the sparrows. I +hope they do. The crow blackbird's attempts at song are ludicrous in the +extreme, as every note is cracked, and is accompanied by a ridiculous +caudal gesture. But he is ranked among the oscines, and seems to know +it; and, after all, it is only the common fault of singers not to be +able to detect their own want of tunefulness. + +I was once crossing the Common, in the middle of the day, when I was +suddenly arrested by the call of a cuckoo. At the same instant two men +passed me, and I heard one say to the other, "Hear that cuckoo! Do you +know what it means? No? Well, _I_ know what it means: it means that it's +going to rain." It did rain, although not for a number of days, I +believe. But probably the cuckoo has adopted the modern method of +predicting the weather some time in advance. Not very long afterwards I +again heard this same note on the Common; but it was several years +before I was able to put the cuckoo into my Boston list, as a bird +actually seen. Indeed it is not so very easy to see him anywhere; for he +makes a practice of robbing the nests of smaller birds, and is always +skulking about from one tree to another, as though he were afraid of +being discovered, as no doubt he is. What Wordsworth wrote of the +European species (allowance being made for a proper degree of poetic +license) is equally applicable to ours:-- + + "No bird, but an invisible thing, + A voice, a mystery." + +When I did finally get a sight of the fellow it was on this wise. As I +entered the Garden, one morning in September, a goldfinch was calling so +persistently and with such anxious emphasis from the large sophora tree +that I turned my steps that way to ascertain what could be the trouble. +I took the voice for a young bird's, but found instead a male adult, who +was twitching his tail nervously and scolding _phee-phee_, _phee-phee_, +at a black-billed cuckoo perched near at hand, in his usual sneaking +attitude. The goldfinch called and called, till my patience was nearly +spent. (Small birds know better than to attack a big one so long as the +latter is at rest.) Then, at last, the cuckoo started off, the finch +after him, and a few minutes later I saw the same flight and chase +repeated. Several other goldfinches were flying about in the +neighborhood, but only this one was in the least excited. Doubtless he +had special reasons of his own for dreading the presence of this +cowardly foe. + +One of our regular visitors twice a year is the brown creeper. He is so +small and silent, and withal his color is so like that of the bark to +which he clings, that I suspect he is seldom noticed even by persons who +pass within a few feet of him. But he is not too small to be hectored by +the sparrows, and I have before now been amused at the encounter. The +sparrow catches sight of the creeper, and at once bears down upon him, +when the creeper darts to the other side of the tree, and alights again +a little further up. The sparrow is after him; but, as he comes dashing +round the trunk, he always seems to expect to find the creeper perched +upon some twig, as any other bird would be, and it is only after a +little reconnoitring that he again discovers him clinging to the +vertical bole. Then he makes another onset with a similar result; and +these manoeoeuvres are repeated, till the creeper becomes disgusted, +and takes to another tree. + +The olive-backed thrushes and the hermits may be looked for every spring +and autumn, and I have known forty or fifty of the former to be present +at once. The hermits most often travel singly or in pairs, though a +small flock is not so very uncommon. Both species preserve absolute +silence while here; I have watched hundreds of them, without hearing so +much as an alarm note. They are far from being pugnacious, but their +sense of personal dignity is large, and once in a while, when the +sparrows pester them beyond endurance, they assume the offensive with +much spirit. There are none of our feathered guests whom I am gladder to +see; the sight of them inevitably fills me with remembrances of happy +vacation seasons among the hills of New Hampshire. If only they would +sing on the Common as they do in those northern woods! The whole city +would come out to hear them. + +During every migration large numbers of warblers visit us. I have noted +the golden-crowned thrush, the small-billed water-thrush, the +black-and-white creeper, the Maryland yellow-throat, the blue +yellow-back, the black-throated green, the black-throated blue, the +yellow-rump, the summer yellow-bird, the black-poll, the Canada +flycatcher, and the redstart. No doubt the list is far from complete, +as, of course, I have not used either glass or gun; and without one or +other of these aids the observer must be content to let many of these +small, tree-top-haunting birds pass unidentified. The two kinglets give +us a call occasionally, and in the late summer and early autumn the +humming-birds spend several weeks about our flower-beds. + +It would be hard for the latter to find a more agreeable stopping-place +in the whole course of their southward journey. What could they ask +better than beds of tuberoses, Japanese lilies, _Nicotiana_ (against the +use of which they manifest not the slightest scruple), petunias, and the +like? Having in mind the Duke of Argyll's assertion that "no bird can +ever fly backwards,"[2] I have more than once watched these +humming-birds at their work on purpose to see whether they would respect +the noble Scotchman's dictum. I am compelled to report that they +appeared never to have heard of his theory. At any rate they very +plainly did fly tail foremost; and that not only in _dropping_ from a +blossom,--in which case the seeming flight might have been, as the duke +maintains, an optical illusion merely,--but even while backing out of +the flower-tube in an upward direction. They are commendably catholic in +their tastes. I saw one exploring the disk of a sunflower, in company +with a splendid monarch butterfly. Possibly he knew that the sunflower +was just then in fashion. Only a few minutes earlier the same bird--or +another like him--had chased an English sparrow out of the Garden, +across Arlington Street, and up to the very roof of a House, to the +great delight of at least one patriotic Yankee. At another time I saw +one of these tiny beauties making his morning toilet in a very pretty +fashion, leaning forward, and brushing first one cheek and then the +other against the wet rose leaf on which he was perched. + +The only swallows on my list are the barn swallows and the +white-breasted. The former, as they go hawking about the crowded +streets, must often send the thoughts of rich city merchants back to the +big barns of their grandfathers, far off in out-of-the-way country +places. Of course we have the chimney swifts, also (near relatives of +the humming-birds!), but they are not swallows. + +Speaking of the swallows, I am reminded of a hawk that came to Boston, +one morning, fully determined not to go away without a taste of the +famous imported sparrows. It is nothing unusual for hawks to be seen +flying over the city, but I had never before known one actually to make +the Public Garden his hunting-ground. This bird perched for a while on +the Arlington Street fence, within a few feet of a passing carriage; +next he was on the ground, peering into a bed of rhododendrons; then for +a long time he sat still in a tree, while numbers of men walked back +and forth underneath; between whiles he sailed about, on the watch for +his prey. On one of these last occasions a little company of swallows +came along, and one of them immediately went out of his way to swoop +down upon the hawk, and deal him a dab. Then, as he rejoined his +companions, I heard him give a little chuckle, as though he said, "There! +did you see me peck at him? You don't think I am afraid of such a +fellow as that, do you?" To speak in Thoreau's manner, I rejoiced in the +incident as a fresh illustration of the ascendency of spirit over +matter. + +One is always glad to find a familiar bird playing a new _rôle_, and +especially in such a spot as the Common, where, at the best, one can +hope to see so very little. It may be assumed, therefore, that I felt +peculiarly grateful to a white-bellied nuthatch, when I discovered him +bopping about on the ground--on Monument Hill; a piece of humility such +as I had never before detected any nuthatch in the practice of. Indeed, +this fellow looked so unlike himself, moving briskly through the grass +with long, awkward leaps, that at first sight I failed to recognize him. +He was occupied with turning over the dry leaves, one after +another,--hunting for cocoons, or things of that sort, I suppose. Twice +he found what he was in search of; but instead of handling the leaf on +the ground, he flew with it to the trunk of an elm, wedged it into a +crevice of the bark, and proceeded to hammer it sharply with his beak. +Great is the power of habit! Strange--is it not?--that any bird should +find it easiest to do such work while clinging to a perpendicular +surface! Yes; but how does it look to a dog, I wonder, that men can walk +better on their hind legs than on all fours? Everything is a miracle +from somebody's point of view. The sparrows were inclined to make game +of my obliging little performer; but he would have none of their +insolence, and repelled every approach in dashing style. In exactly +three weeks from this time, and on the same hillside, I came upon +another nuthatch similarly employed; but before this one had turned up a +leaf to his mind, the sparrows became literally too many for him, and he +took flight,--to my no small disappointment. + +It would be unfair not to name others of my city guests, even though I +have nothing in particular to record concerning them. The Wilson thrush +and the red-bellied nuthatch I have seen once or twice each. The chewink +is more constant in his visits, as is also the golden-winged woodpecker. +Our familiar little downy woodpecker, on the other hand, has thus far +kept out of my catalogue. No other bird's absence has surprised me so +much; and it is the more remarkable because the comparatively rare +yellow-bellied species is to be met with nearly every season. +Cedar-birds show themselves irregularly. One March morning, when the +ground was covered with snow, a flock of perhaps a hundred collected in +one of the taller maples in the Garden, till the tree looked from a +distance like an autumn hickory, its leafless branches still thickly +dotted with nuts. Four days afterward, what seemed to be the same +company made their appearance in the Common. Of the flycatchers, I have +noted the kingbird, the least flycatcher, and the phoebe. The two +former stay to breed. Twice in the fall I have found a kingfisher about +the Frog Pond. Once the fellow sprung his watchman's rattle. He was +perhaps my most unexpected caller, and for a minute or so I was not +entirely sure whether indeed I was in Boston or not. The blue jay and +the crow know too much to be caught in such a place, although one may +often enough see the latter passing overhead. Every now and then, in the +traveling season, a stray sandpiper or two will be observed teetering +round the edge of the Common and Garden ponds; and one day, when the +latter was drained, I saw quite a flock of some one of the smaller +species feeding over its bottom. Very picturesque they were, feeding and +flying in close order. Besides these must be mentioned the +yellow-throated vireo, the bay-winged bunting, the swamp sparrow, the +field sparrow, the purple finch, the red-poll linnet, the savanna +sparrow, the tree sparrow, the night-hawk (whose celebrated tumbling +trick may often be witnessed by evening strollers in the Garden), the +woodcock (I found the body of one which had evidently met its death +against the electric wire), and among the best of all, the chickadees, +who sometimes make the whole autumn cheerful with their presence, but +about whom I say nothing here because I have said so much elsewhere. + +Of fugitive cage-birds, I recall only five--all in the Garden. One of +these, feeding tamely in the path, I suspected for an English robin but +he was not in full plumage, and my conjecture may have been incorrect. +Another was a diminutive finch, dressed in a suit of red, blue, and +green. He sat in a bush, saying _No, no!_ to a feline admirer who was +making love to him earnestly. The others were a mocking-bird, a cardinal +grosbeak, and a paroquet. The mocking-bird and the grosbeak might +possibly have been wild, had the question been one of latitude simply, +but their demeanor satisfied me to the contrary. The former's awkward +attempt at alighting on the tip of a fence-picket seemed evidence enough +that he had not been long at large. The paroquet was a splendid +creature, with a brilliant orange throat darkly spotted. He flew from +tree to tree, chattering gayly, and had a really pretty song. Evidently +he was in the best of spirits, notwithstanding the rather obtrusive +attentions of a crowd of house sparrows, who appeared to look upon such +a wearer of the green as badly out of place in this new England of +theirs. But for all his vivacity, I feared he would not be long in +coming to grief. If he escaped other perils, the cold weather must soon +overtake him, for it was now the middle of September, and his last state +would be worse than his first. He had better have kept his cage; unless, +indeed, he was one of the nobler spirits that prefer death to slavery. + +Of all the birds thus far named, very few seemed to attract the +attention of anybody except myself. But there remains one other, whom I +have reserved for the last, not because he was in himself the noblest or +the most interesting (though he was perhaps the biggest), but because, +unlike the rest, he did succeed in winning the notice of the multitude. +In fact, my one owl, to speak theatrically, made a decided hit; for a +single afternoon he may be said to have been famous,--or at all events +notorious, if any old-fashioned reader be disposed to insist upon this +all but obsolete distinction. His triumph, such as it was, had already +begun when I first discovered him, for he was then perched well up in an +elm, while a mob of perhaps forty men and boys were pelting him with +sticks and stones. Even in the dim light of a cloudy November afternoon +he seemed quite bewildered and helpless, making no attempt to escape, +although the missiles were flying past him on all sides. The most he did +was to shift his perch when he was hit, which, to be sure, happened +pretty often. Once he was struck so hard that he came tumbling toward +the ground, and I began to think it was all over with him; but when +about half-way down he recovered himself, and by dint of painful +flappings succeeded in alighting just out of the reach of the crowd. At +once there were loud cries: "Don't kill him! Don't kill him!" and while +the scamps were debating what to do next, he regained his breath, and +flew up into the tree again, as high as before. Then the stoning began +anew. For my part I pitied the fellow sincerely, and wished him well out +of the hands of his tormentors; but I found myself laughing with the +rest to see him turn his head and stare, with his big, vacant eyes, +after a stone which had just whizzed by his ear. Everybody that came +along stopped for a few minutes to witness the sport, and Beacon Street +filled up with carriages till it looked as if some holiday procession +were halted in front of the State House. I left the crowd still at their +work, and must do them the justice to say that some of them were +excellent marksmen. An old negro, who stood near me, was bewailing the +law against shooting; else, he said, he would go home and get his gun. +He described, with appropriate gestures, how very easily he could fetch +the bird down. Perhaps he afterwards plucked up courage to violate the +statute. At any rate the next morning's newspapers reported that an owl +had been shot, the day before, on the Common. Poor bird of wisdom! His +sudden popularity proved to be the death of him. Like many of loftier +name he found it true,-- + + "The path of glory leads but to the grave." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] My identification of _Turdus Aliciæ_ was based entirely upon the +song, and so, of course, had no final scientific value. It was confirmed +a few weeks later, however, by Mr. William Brewster, who took specimens. +(See _Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club_, January, 1883, p. +12.) Prior to this the species was not known to breed in New England. + +[2] _The Reign of Law_, p. 140. + + + + + BIRD-SONGS. + + Canst thou imagine where those spirits live + Which make such delicate music in the woods? + + SHELLEY. + + + BIRD-SONGS. + + +Why do birds sing? Has their music a meaning, or is it all a matter of +blind impulse? Some bright morning in March, as you go out-of-doors, you +are greeted by the notes of the first robin. Perched in a leafless tree, +there he sits, facing the sun like a genuine fire-worshiper, and singing +as though he would pour out his very soul. What is he thinking about? +What spirit possesses him? + +It is easy to ask questions until the simplest matter comes to seem, +what at bottom it really is, a thing altogether mysterious; but if our +robin could understand us, he would, likely enough, reply:-- + +"Why do you talk in this way, as if it were something requiring +explanation that a bird should sing? You seem to have forgotten that +everybody sings, or almost everybody. Think of the insects,--the bees +and the crickets and the locusts, to say nothing of your intimate +friends, the mosquitoes! Think, too, of the frogs and the hylas! If +these cold-blooded, low-lived creatures, after sleeping all winter in +the mud,[3] are free to make so much use of their voices, surely a bird +of the air may sing his unobtrusive song without being cross-examined +concerning the purpose of it. Why do the mice sing, and the monkeys, and +the woodchucks? Indeed, sir,--if one may be so bold,--why do you sing, +yourself?" + +This matter-of-fact Darwinism need not frighten us. It will do us no +harm to remember, now and then, "the hole of the pit whence we were +digged;" and besides, as far as any relationship between us and the +birds is concerned, it is doubtful whether we are the party to complain. + +But avoiding "genealogies and contentions," and taking up the question +with which we began, we may safely say that birds sing, sometimes to +gratify an innate love for sweet sounds; sometimes to win a mate, or to +tell their love to a mate already won; sometimes as practice, with a +view to self-improvement; and sometimes for no better reason than the +poet's,--"I do but sing because I must." In general, they sing for joy; +and their joy, of course, has various causes. + +For one thing, they are very sensitive to the weather. With them, as +with us, sunlight and a genial warmth go to produce serenity. A bright +summer-like day, late in October, or even in November, will set the +smaller birds to singing, and the grouse to drumming. I heard a robin +venturing a little song on the 25th of last December; but that, for +aught I know, was a Christmas carol. No matter what the season, you will +not hear a great deal of bird music during a high wind; and if you are +caught in the woods by a sudden shower in May or June, and are not too +much taken up with thoughts of your own condition, you will hardly fail +to notice the instant silence which falls upon the woods with the rain. +Birds, however, are more or less inconsistent (that is, a part of their +likeness to us), and sometimes sing most freely when the sky is +overcast. + +But their highest joys are by no means dependent upon the moods of the +weather. A comfortable state of mind is not to be contemned, but beings +who are capable of deep and passionate affection recognize a difference +between comfort and ecstasy. And the peculiar glory of birds is just +here, in the all-consuming fervor of their love. It would be commonplace +to call them models of conjugal and parental faithfulness. With a few +exceptions (and these, it is a pleasure to add, not singers), the very +least of them is literally faithful unto death. Here and there, in the +notes of some collector, we are told of a difficulty he has had in +securing a coveted specimen: the tiny creature, whose mate had been +already "collected," would persist in hovering so closely about the +invader's head that it was impossible to shoot him without spoiling him +for the cabinet by blowing him to pieces! + +Need there be any mystery about the singing of such a lover? Is it +surprising if at times he is so enraptured that he can no longer sit +tamely on the branch, but must dart into the air, and go circling round +and round, caroling as he flies? + +So far as song is the voice of emotion, it will of necessity vary with +the emotion; and every one who has ears must have heard once in a while +bird music of quite unusual fervor. For example, I have often seen the +least flycatcher (a very unromantic-looking body, surely) when he was +almost beside himself; flying in a circle, and repeating breathlessly +his emphatic _chebec_. And once I found a wood pewee in a somewhat +similar mood. He was more quiet than the least flycatcher; but he too +sang on the wing, and I have never heard notes which seemed more +expressive of happiness. Many of them were entirely new and strange, +although the familiar _pewee_ was introduced among the rest. As I +listened, I felt it to be an occasion for thankfulness that the +delighted creature had never studied anatomy, and did not know that the +structure of his throat made it improper for him to sing. In this +connection, also, I recall a cardinal grosbeak, whom I heard several +years ago, on the bank of the Potomac River. An old soldier had taken me +to visit the Great Falls, and as we were clambering over the rocks this +grosbeak began to sing; and soon, without any hint from me, and without +knowing who the invisible musician was, my companion remarked upon the +uncommon beauty of the song. The cardinal is always a great singer, +having a voice which, as European writers say, is almost equal to the +nightingale's; but in this case the more stirring, martial quality of +the strain had given place to an exquisite mellowness, as if it were, +what I have no doubt it was, a song of love. + +Every kind of bird has notes of its own, so that a thoroughly practiced +ear would be able to discriminate the different species with nearly as +much certainty as Professor Baird would feel after an examination of the +anatomy and plumage. Still this strong specific resemblance is far from +being a dead uniformity. Aside from the fact, already mentioned, that +the characteristic strain is sometimes given with extraordinary +sweetness and emphasis, there are often to be detected variations of a +more formal character. This is noticeably true of robins. It may almost +be said that no two of them sing alike; while now and then their +vagaries are conspicuous enough to attract general attention. One who +was my neighbor last year interjected into his song a series of four or +five most exact imitations of the peep of a chicken. When I first heard +this performance, I was in company with two friends, both of whom +noticed and laughed at it; and some days afterwards I visited the spot +again, and found the bird still rehearsing the same ridiculous medley. I +conjectured that he had been brought up near a hen-coop, and, moreover, +had been so unfortunate as to lose his father before his notes had +become thoroughly fixed; and then, being compelled to finish his musical +education by himself, had taken a fancy to practice these chicken calls. +This guess may not have been correct. All I can affirm is that he sang +exactly as he might have been expected to do, on that supposition; but +certainly the resemblance seemed too close to be accidental. + +The variations of the wood thrush are fully as striking as those of the +robin, and sometimes it is impossible not to feel that the artist is +making a deliberate effort to do something out of the ordinary course, +something better than he has ever done before. Now and then he prefaces +his proper song with many disconnected, extremely _staccato_ notes, +following each other at very distant and unexpected intervals of pitch. +It is this, I conclude, which is meant by some writer (who it is I +cannot now remember) when he criticises the wood thrush for spending too +much time in tuning his instrument. But the fault is the critic's, I +think; to my ear these preliminaries sound rather like the recitative +which goes before the grand _aria_. + +Still another musician who delights to take liberties with his score is +the towhee bunting, or chewink. Indeed, he carries the matter so far +that sometimes it seems almost as if he suspected the proximity of some +self-conceited ornithologist, and were determined, if possible, to make +a fool of him. And for my part, being neither self conceited nor an +ornithologist, I am willing to confess that I have once or twice been so +badly deceived that now the mere sight of this _Pipilo_ is, so to speak, +a means of grace to me. + +One more of these innovators (these heretics, as they are most likely +called by their more conservative brethren) is the field sparrow, +better known as _Spizella pusilla_. His usual song consists of a simple +line of notes, beginning leisurely, but growing shorter and more rapid +to the close. The voice is so smooth and sweet, and the acceleration so +well managed, that, although the whole is commonly a strict monotone, +the effect is not in the least monotonous. This song I once heard +rendered in reverse order, with a result so strange that I did not +suspect the identity of the author till I had crept up within sight of +him. Another of these sparrows, who has passed the last two seasons in +my neighborhood, habitually doubles the measure; going through it in the +usual way, and then, just as you expect him to conclude, catching it up +again, _Da capo_. + +But birds like these are quite outdone by such species as the song +sparrow, the white-eyed vireo, and the Western meadow-lark,--species of +which we may say that each individual bird has a whole repertory of +songs at his command. The song sparrow, who is the best known of the +three, will repeat one melody perhaps a dozen times, then change it for +a second, and in turn leave that for a third; as if he were singing +hymns of twelve or fifteen stanzas each, and set each hymn to its +appropriate tune. It is something well worth listening to, common +though it is, and may easily suggest a number of questions about the +origin and meaning of bird music. + +The white-eyed vireo is a singer of astonishing spirit, and his sudden +changes from one theme to another are sometimes almost startling. He is +a skillful ventriloquist, also, and I remember one in particular who +outwitted me completely. He was rehearsing a well-known strain, but at +the end there came up from the bushes underneath a querulous call. At +first I took it for granted that some other bird was in the underbrush; +but the note was repeated too many times, and came in too exactly on the +beat. + +I have no personal acquaintance with the Western meadow-lark, but no +less than twenty-six of his songs have been printed in musical notation, +and these are said to be by no means all.[4] + +Others of our birds have similar gifts, though no others, so far as I +know, are quite so versatile as these three. Several of the warblers, +for example, have attained to more than one set song, notwithstanding +the deservedly small reputation of this misnamed family. I have myself +heard the golden-crowned thrush, the black-throated green warbler, the +black-throated blue, the yellow-rumped, and the chestnut-sided, sing +two melodies each, while the blue golden-winged has at least three; and +this, of course, without making anything of slight variations such as +all birds are more or less accustomed to indulge in. The best of the +three songs of the blue golden-wing I have never heard except on one +occasion, but then it was repeated for half an hour under my very eyes. +It bore no resemblance to the common _dsee_, _dsee_, _dsee_, of the +species, and would appear to be seldom used; for not only have I never +heard it since, but none of the writers seem ever to have heard it at +all. However, I still keep a careful description of it, which I took +down on the spot, and which I expect some future golden-wing to verify. + +But the most celebrated of the warblers in this regard is the +golden-crowned thrush, otherwise called the oven-bird and the wood +wagtail. His ordinary effort is one of the noisiest, least melodious, +and most incessant sounds to be heard in our woods. His _song_ is +another matter. For that he takes to the air (usually starting from a +tree-top, although I have seen him rise from the ground), whence, after +a preliminary _chip_, _chip_, he lets fall a hurried flood of notes, in +the midst of which can usually be distinguished his familiar _weechee_, +_weechee_, _weechee_. It is nothing wonderful that he should sing on +the wing,--many other birds do the same, and very much better than he; +but he is singular in that he strictly reserves his aerial music for +late in the afternoon. I have heard it as early as three o'clock, but +never before that, and it is most common about sunset. Writers speak of +it as limited to the season of courtship; but I have heard it almost +daily till near the end of July, and once, for my special benefit, +perhaps, it was given in full--and repeated--on the first day of +September. But who taught the little creature to do this,--to sing one +song in the forenoon, perched upon a twig, and to keep another for +afternoon, singing that invariably on the wing? and what difference is +there between the two in the mind of the singer?[5] + +It is an indiscretion ever to say of a bird that he has only such and +such notes. You may have been his friend for years, but the next time +you go into the woods he will likely enough put you to shame by singing +something not so much as hinted at in your description. I thought I knew +the song of the yellow-rumped warbler, having listened to it many +times,--a slight and rather characterless thing, nowise remarkable. But +coming down Mount Willard one day in June, I heard a warbler's song +which brought me to a sudden halt. It was new and beautiful,--more +beautiful, it seemed at the moment, than any warbler's song I had ever +heard. What could it be? A little patient waiting (while the black-flies +and mosquitoes "came upon me to eat up my flesh"), and the wonderful +stranger appeared in full view,--my old acquaintance, the yellow-rumped +warbler. + +With all this strong tendency on the part of birds to vary their music, +how is it that there is still such a degree of uniformity, so that, as +we have said, every species may be recognized by its notes? Why does +every red-eyed vireo sing in one way, and every white-eyed vireo in +another? Who teaches the young chipper to trill, and the young linnet to +warble? In short, how do birds come by their music? Is it all a matter +of instinct, inherited habit, or do they learn it? The answer appears to +be that birds sing as children talk, by simple imitation. Nobody +imagines that the infant is born with a language printed upon his brain. +The father and mother may never have known a word of any tongue except +the English, but if the child is brought up to hear only Chinese, he +will infallibly speak that, and nothing else. And careful experiments +have shown the same to be true of birds.[6] Taken from the nest just +after they leave the shell, they invariably sing, not their own +so-called natural song, but the song of their foster-parents; provided, +of course, that this is not anything beyond their physical capacity. The +notorious house sparrow (our "English" sparrow), in his wild or +semi-domesticated state, never makes a musical sound; but if he is taken +in hand early enough, he may be taught to sing, so it is said, nearly as +well as the canary. Bechstein relates that a Paris clergyman had two of +these sparrows whom he had trained to speak, and, among other things, to +recite several of the shorter commandments; and the narrative goes on to +say that it was sometimes very comical, when the pair were disputing +over their food, to hear one gravely admonish the other, "Thou shalt not +steal!" It would be interesting to know why creatures thus gifted do not +sing of their own motion. With their amiability and sweet peaceableness +they ought to be caroling the whole year round. + +This question of the transmission of songs from one generation to +another is, of course, a part of the general subject of animal +intelligence, a subject much discussed in these days on account of its +bearing upon the modern doctrine concerning the relation of man to the +inferior orders. + +We have nothing to do with such a theme, but it may not be out of place +to suggest to preachers and moralists that here is a striking and +unhackneyed illustration of the force of early training. Birds sing by +imitation, it is true, but as a rule they imitate only the notes which +they hear during the first few weeks after they are hatched. One of Mr. +Barrington's linnets, for example, after being educated under a titlark, +was put into a room with two birds of his own species, where he heard +them sing freely every day for three months. He made no attempt to learn +anything from them, however, but kept on practicing what the titlark had +taught him, quite unconscious of anything singular or unpatriotic in +such a course. This law, that impressions received during the immaturity +of the powers become the unalterable habit of the after life, is perhaps +the most momentous of all the laws in whose power we find ourselves. +Sometimes we are tempted to call it cruel. But if it were annulled, this +would be a strange world. What a hurly-hurly we should have among the +birds! There would be no more telling them by their notes. Thrushes and +jays, wrens and chickadees, finches and warblers, all would be singing +one grand medley. + +Between these two opposing tendencies, one urging to variation, the +other to permanence (for Nature herself is half radical, half +conservative), the language of birds has grown from rude beginnings to +its present beautiful diversity; and whoever lives a century of +millenniums hence will listen to music such as we in this day can only +dream of. Inappreciably but ceaselessly the work goes on. Here and there +is born a master-singer, a feathered genius, and every generation makes +its own addition to the glorious inheritance. + +It may be doubted whether there is any real connection between moral +character and the possession of wings. Nevertheless there has long been +a popular feeling that some such congruity does exist; and certainly it +seems unreasonable to suppose that creatures who are able to soar at +will into the heavens should be without other equally angelic +attributes. But, be that as it may, our friends, the birds, do +undeniably set us a good example in several respects. To mention only +one, how becoming is their observance of morning and evening song! In +spite of their industrious spirit (and few of us labor more hours +daily), neither their first nor their last thoughts are given to the +question, What shall we eat, and what shall we drink? Possibly their +habit of saluting the rising and setting sun may be thought to favor the +theory that the worship of the god of day was the original religion. I +know nothing about that. But it would be a sad change if the birds, +declining from their present beautiful custom, were to sleep and work, +work and sleep, with no holy hour between, as is too much the case with +the being who, according to his own pharisaic notion, is the only +religious animal. + +In the season, however, the woods are by no means silent, even at +noonday. Many species (such as the vireos and warblers, who get their +living amid the foliage of trees) sing as they work; while the thrushes +and others, who keep business and pleasure more distinct, are often too +happy to go many hours together without a hymn. I have even seen robins +singing without quitting the turf; but that is rather unusual, for +somehow birds have come to feel that they must get away from the ground +when the lyrical mood is upon them. This may be a thing of sentiment +(for is not language full of uncomplimentary allusions to earth and +earthliness?), but more likely it is prudential. The gift of song is no +doubt a dangerous blessing to creatures who have so many enemies, and we +can readily believe that they have found it safer to be up where they +can look about them while thus publishing their whereabouts. + +A very interesting exception to this rule is the savanna sparrow, who +sings habitually from the ground. But even he shares the common feeling, +and stretches himself to his full height with an earnestness which is +almost laughable, in view of the result; for his notes are hardly louder +than a cricket's chirp. Probably he has fallen into this lowly habit +from living in meadows and salt marshes, where bushes and trees are not +readily to be come at; and it is worth noticing that, in the case of the +skylark and the white-winged blackbird, the same conditions have led to +a result precisely opposite. The sparrow, we may presume, was originally +of a humble disposition, and when nothing better offered itself for a +singing-perch easily grew accustomed to standing upon a stone or a +little lump of earth; and this practice, long persisted in, naturally +had the effect to lessen the loudness of his voice. The skylark, on the +other hand, when he did not readily find a tree-top, said to himself, +"Never mind! I have a pair of wings." And so the lark is famous, while +the sparrow remains unheard-of, and is even mistaken for a +grasshopper. + +How true it is that the very things which dishearten one nature and +break it down, only help another to find out what it was made for! If +you would foretell the development, either of a bird or of a man, it is +not enough to know his environment, you must know also what there is in +him. + +We have possibly made too much of the savanna sparrow's innocent +eccentricity. He fills his place, and fills it well; and who knows but +that he may yet outshine the skylark? There is a promise, I believe, for +those who humble themselves. But what shall be said of species which do +not even try to sing, and that, notwithstanding they have all the +structural peculiarities of singing birds, and must, almost certainly, +have come from ancestors who were singers? We have already mentioned the +house sparrow, whose defect is the more mysterious on account of his +belonging to so highly musical a family. But _he_ was never accused of +not being noisy enough, while we have one bird who, though he is classed +with the oscines, passes his life in almost unbroken silence. Of course +I refer to the waxwing, or cedar-bird, whose faint, sibilant whisper can +scarcely be thought to contradict the foregoing description. By what +strange freak he has lapsed into this ghostly habit, nobody knows. I +make no account of the insinuation that he gave up music because it +hindered his success in cherry-stealing. He likes cherries, it is true; +and who can blame him? But he would need to work hard to steal more than +does that indefatigable songster, the robin. I feel sure he has some +better reason than this for his Quakerish conduct. But, however he came +by his stillness, it is likely that by this time he plumes himself upon +it. Silence is golden, he thinks, the supreme result of the highest +æsthetic culture. Those loud creatures, the thrushes and finches! What a +vulgar set they are, to be sure, the more's the pity! Certainly if he +does not reason in some such way, bird nature is not so human as we have +given it credit for being. Besides, the waxwing has an uncommon +appreciation of the decorous; at least, we must think so if we are able +to credit a story of Nuttall's. He declares that a Boston gentleman, +whose name he gives, saw one of a company of these birds capture an +insect, and offer it to his neighbor; he, however, delicately declined +the dainty bit, and it was offered to the next, who, in turn, was +equally polite; and the morsel actually passed back and forth along the +line, till, finally, one of the flock was persuaded to eat it. I have +never seen anything equal to this; but one day, happening to stop under +a low cedar, I discovered right over my head a waxwing's nest with the +mother-bird sitting upon it, while her mate was perched beside her on +the branch. He was barely out of my reach, but he did not move a muscle; +and although he uttered no sound, his behavior said as plainly as +possible, "What do you expect to do _here_? Don't you see _I_ am +standing guard over this nest?" I should be ashamed not to be able to +add that I respected his dignity and courage, and left him and his +castle unmolested. + +Observations so discursive as these can hardly be finished; they must +break off abruptly, or else go on forever. Let us make an end, +therefore, with expressing our hope that the cedar-bird, already so +handsome and chivalrous, will yet take to himself a song; one sweet and +original, worthy to go with his soft satin coat, his ornaments of +sealing-wax, and his magnificent top-knot. Let him do that, and he shall +always be made welcome; yes, even though he come in force and in +cherry-time. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] There is no Historic-Genealogical Society among the birds, and the +robin is not aware that his own remote ancestors were reptiles. If he +were, he would hardly speak so disrespectfully of these batrachians. + +[4] Mr. C. N. Allen, in _Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club_, +July, 1881. + +[5] Since this paper was written I have three times heard the wood +wagtail's true song in the morning,--but in neither case was the bird in +the air. See p. 284. + +[6] See the paper of Daines Barrington in _Philosophical Transactions_ +for 1773; also, Darwin's _Descent of Man_, and Wallace's _Natural +Selection_. + + + + + CHARACTER IN FEATHERS. + + The finger of God hath left an inscription upon all his works, not + graphical or composed of letters, but of their several forms, + constitutions, parts, and operations, which, aptly joined together, + do make one word that doth express their natures. By these letters + God calls the stars by their names; and by this alphabet Adam + assigned to every creature a name peculiar to its nature. + + SIR THOMAS BROWNE. + + + CHARACTER IN FEATHERS. + + +In this economically governed world the same thing serves many uses. Who +will take upon himself to enumerate the offices of sunlight, or water, +or indeed of any object whatever? Because we know it to be good for this +or that, it by no means follows that we have discovered what it was made +for. What we have found out is perhaps only something by the way; as if +a man should think the sun were created for his own private convenience. +In some moods it seems doubtful whether we are yet acquainted with the +real value of anything. But, be that as it may, we need not scruple to +admire so much as our ignorance permits us to see of the workings of +this divine frugality. The piece of woodland, for instance, which skirts +the village,--how various are its ministries to the inhabitants, each of +whom, without forethought or question, takes the benefit proper to +himself! The poet saunters there as in a true Holy Land, to have his +heart cooled and stilled. Mr. A. and Mr. B., who hold the deeds of the +"property," walk through it to look at the timber, with an eye to +dollars and cents. The botanist has his errand there, the zoölogist his, +and the child his. Oftenest of all, perhaps (for barbarism dies hard, +and even yet the ministers of Christ find it a capital sport to murder +small fishes),--oftenest of all comes the man, poor soul, who thinks of +the forest as of a place to which he may go when he wishes to amuse +himself by killing something. Meanwhile, the rabbits and the squirrels, +the hawks and the owls, look upon all such persons as no better than +intruders (do not the woods belong to those who live in them?); while +nobody remembers the meteorologist, who nevertheless smiles in his +sleeve at all these one-sided notions, and says to himself that he knows +the truth of the matter. + +So is it with everything; and with all the rest, so is it with the +birds. The interest they excite is of all grades, from that which looks +upon them as items of millinery, up to that of the makers of +ornithological systems, who ransack the world for specimens, and who +have no doubt that the chief end of a bird is to be named and +catalogued,--the more synonyms the better. Somewhere between these two +extremes comes the person whose interest in birds is friendly rather +than scientific; who has little taste for shooting, and an aversion +from dissecting; who delights in the living creatures themselves, and +counts a bird in the bush worth two in the hand. Such a person, if he is +intelligent, makes good use of the best works on ornithology; he would +not know how to get along without them; but he studies most the birds +themselves, and after a while he begins to associate them on a plan of +his own. Not that he distrusts the approximate correctness of the +received classification, or ceases to find it of daily service; but +though it were as accurate as the multiplication table, it is based (and +rightly, no doubt) on anatomical structure alone; it rates birds as +bodies, and nothing else: while to the person of whom we are speaking +birds are, first of all, souls; his interest in them is, as we say, +personal; and we are none of us in the habit of grouping our friends +according to height, or complexion, or any other physical peculiarity. + +But it is not proposed in this paper to attempt a new classification of +any sort, even the most unscientific and fanciful. All I am to do is to +set down at random a few studies in such a method as I have indicated; +in short, a few studies in the temperaments of birds. Nor, in making +this attempt, am I unmindful how elusive of analysis traits of character +are, and how diverse is the impression which the same personality +produces upon different observers. In matters of this kind every +judgment is largely a question of emphasis and proportion; and, +moreover, what we find in our friends depends in great part on what we +have in ourselves. This I do not forget; and therefore I foresee that +others will discover in the birds of whom I write many things that I +miss, and perhaps will miss some things which I have treated as patent +or even conspicuous. It remains only for each to testify what he has +seen, and at the end to confess that a soul, even the soul of a bird, is +after all a mystery. + +Let our first example, then, be the common black-capped titmouse, or +chickadee. He is, _par excellence_, the bird of the merry heart. There +is a notion current, to be sure, that all birds are merry; but that is +one of those second-hand opinions which a man who begins to observe for +himself soon finds it necessary to give up. With many birds life is a +hard struggle. Enemies are numerous, and the food supply is too often +scanty. Of some species it is probable that very few die in their beds. +But the chickadee seems to be exempt from all forebodings. His coat is +thick, his heart is brave, and, whatever may happen, something will be +found to eat. "Take no thought for the morrow" is his creed, which he +accepts, not "for substance of doctrine," but literally. No matter how +bitter the wind or how deep the snow, you will never find the chickadee, +as the saying is, under the weather. It is this perennial good humor, I +suppose, which makes other birds so fond of his companionship; and their +example might well be heeded by persons who suffer from fits of +depression. Such unfortunates could hardly do better than to court the +society of the joyous tit. His whistles and chirps, his graceful feats +of climbing and hanging, and withal his engaging familiarity (for, of +course, such good-nature as his could not consist with suspiciousness) +would most likely send them home in a more Christian mood. The time will +come, we may hope, when doctors will prescribe bird-gazing instead of +blue-pill. + +To illustrate the chickadee's trustfulness, I may mention that a friend +of mine captured one in a butterfly-net, and, carrying him into the +house, let him loose in the sitting-room. The little stranger was at +home immediately, and seeing the window full of plants, proceeded to go +over them carefully, picking off the lice with which such window-gardens +are always more or less infested. A little later he was taken into my +friend's lap, and soon he climbed up to his shoulder; where, after +hopping about for a few minutes on his coat-collar, he selected a +comfortable roosting place, tucked his head under his wing, and went to +sleep, and slept on undisturbed while carried from one room to another. +Probably the chickadee's nature is not of the deepest. I have never seen +him when his joy rose to ecstasy. Still his feelings are not shallow, +and the faithfulness of the pair to each other and to their offspring is +of the highest order. The female has sometimes to be taken off the nest, +and even to be held in the hand, before the eggs can be examined. + +Our American goldfinch is one of the loveliest of birds. With his +elegant plumage, his rhythmical, undulatory flight, his beautiful song, +and his more beautiful soul, he ought to be one of the best beloved, if +not one of the most famous; but he has never yet had half his deserts. +He is like the chickadee, and yet different. He is not so extremely +confiding, nor should I call him merry. But he is always cheerful, in +spite of his so-called plaintive note, from which he gets one of his +names, and always amiable. So far as I know, he never utters a harsh +sound; even the young ones, asking for food, use only smooth, musical +tones. During the pairing season his delight often becomes rapturous. To +see him then, hovering and singing,--or, better still, to see the +devoted pair hovering together, billing and singing,--is enough to do +even a cynic good. The happy lovers! They have never read it in a book, +but it is written on their hearts,-- + + "The gentle law, that each should be + The other's heaven and harmony." + +The goldfinch has the advantage of the titmouse in several respects, but +he lacks that sprightliness, that exceeding light-heartedness, which is +the chickadee's most endearing characteristic. + +For the sake of a strong contrast, we may look next at the brown thrush, +known to farmers as the planting-bird and to ornithologists as +_Harporhynchus rufus_; a staid and solemn Puritan, whose creed is the +Preacher's,--"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." No frivolity and +merry-making for him! After his brief annual period of intensely +passionate song, he does penance for the remainder of the +year,--skulking about, on the ground or near it, silent and gloomy. He +seems ever on the watch against an enemy, and, unfortunately for his +comfort, he has nothing of the reckless, bandit spirit, such as the jay +possesses, which goes to make a moderate degree of danger almost a +pastime. Not that he is without courage; when his nest is in question he +will take great risks; but in general his manner is dispirited, +"sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." Evidently he feels + + "The heavy and the weary weight + Of all this unintelligible world;" + +and it would not be surprising if he sometimes raised the question, "Is +life worth living?" It is the worst feature of his case that his +melancholy is not of the sort which softens and refines the nature. +There is no suggestion of saintliness about it. In fact, I am convinced +that this long-tailed thrush has a constitutional taint of vulgarity. +His stealthy, underhand manner is one mark of this, and the same thing +comes out again in his music. Full of passion as his singing is (and we +have hardly anything to compare with it in this regard), yet the +listener cannot help smiling now and then; the very finest passage is +followed so suddenly by some uncouth guttural note, or by some whimsical +drop from the top to the bottom of the scale. + +In neighborly association with the brown thrush is the towhee bunting, +or chewink. The two choose the same places for their summer homes, and, +unless I am deceived, they often migrate in company. But though they are +so much together, and in certain of their ways very much alike, their +habits of mind are widely dissimilar. The towhee is of a peculiarly even +disposition. I have seldom heard him scold, or use any note less +good-natured and musical than his pleasant _cherawink_. I have never +detected him in a quarrel such as nearly all birds are once in a while +guilty of, ungracious as it may seem to mention the fact; nor have I +ever seen him hopping nervously about and twitching his tail, as is the +manner of most species, when, for instance, their nests are approached. +Nothing seems to annoy him. At the same time, he is not full of +continual merriment like the chickadee, nor occasionally in a rapture +like the goldfinch. Life with him is pitched in a low key; comfortable +rather than cheerful, and never jubilant. And yet, for all the towhee's +careless demeanor, you soon begin to suspect him of being deep. He +appears not to mind you; he keeps on scratching among the dry leaves as +if he had no thought of being driven away by your presence; but in a +minute or two you look that way again, and he is not there. If you pass +near his nest, he makes not a tenth part of the ado which a brown thrush +would make in the same circumstances, but (partly for this reason) you +will find half a dozen nests of the thrush sooner than one of his. With +all his simplicity and frankness, which puts him in happy contrast with +the thrush, he knows as well as anybody how to keep his own counsel. I +have seen him with his mate for two or three days together about the +flower-beds in the Boston Public Garden, and so far as appeared they +were feeding as unconcernedly as though they had been on their own +native heath, amid the scrub-oaks and huckleberry bushes; but after +their departure it was remembered that they had not once been heard to +utter a sound. If self-possession be four fifths of good manners, our +red-eyed Pipilo may certainly pass for a gentleman. + +We have now named four birds, the chickadee, the goldfinch, the brown +thrush, and the towhee,--birds so diverse in plumage that no eye could +fail to discriminate them at a glance. But the four differ no more truly +in bodily shape and dress than they do in that inscrutable something +which we call temperament, disposition. If the soul of each were +separated from the body and made to stand out in sight, those of us who +have really known the birds in the flesh would have no difficulty in +saying, This is the titmouse, and this the towhee. It would be with them +as we hope it will be with our friends in the next world, whom we shall +recognize there because we knew them here; that is, we knew _them_, and +not merely the bodies they lived in. This kind of familiarity with birds +has no necessary connection with ornithology. Personal intimacy and a +knowledge of anatomy are still two different things. As we have all +heard, ours is an age of science; but, thank fortune, matters have not +yet gone so far that a man must take a course in anthropology before he +can love his neighbor. + +It is a truth only too patent that taste and conscience are sometimes at +odds. One man wears his faults so gracefully that we can hardly help +falling in love with them, while another, alas, makes even virtue itself +repulsive. I am moved to this commonplace reflection by thinking of the +blue jay, a bird of doubtful character, but one for whom, nevertheless, +it is impossible not to feel a sort of affection and even of respect. He +is quite as suspicious as the brown thrush, and his instinct for an +invisible perch is perhaps as unerring as the cuckoo's; and yet, even +when he takes to hiding, his manner is not without a dash of boldness. +He has a most irascible temper, also, but, unlike the thrasher, he does +not allow his ill-humor to degenerate into chronic sulkiness. Instead, +he flies into a furious passion, and is done with it. Some say that on +such occasions he swears, and I have myself seen him when it was plain +that nothing except a natural impossibility kept him from tearing his +hair. His larynx would make him a singer, and his mental capacity is far +above the average; but he has perverted his gifts, till his music is +nothing but noise and his talent nothing but smartness. A like process +of depravation the world has before now witnessed in political life, +when a man of brilliant natural endowments has yielded to low ambitions +and stooped to unworthy means, till what was meant to be a statesman +turns put to be a demagogue. But perhaps we wrong our handsome friend, +fallen angel though he be, to speak thus of him. Most likely he would +resent the comparison, and I do not press it. We must admit that +juvenile sportsmen have persecuted him unduly; and when a creature +cannot show himself without being shot at, he may be pardoned for a +little misanthropy. Christians as we are, how many of us could stand +such a test? In these circumstances, it is a point in the jay's favor +that he still has, what is rare with birds, a sense of humor, albeit it +is humor of a rather grim sort,--the sort which expends itself in +practical jokes and uncivil epithets. He has discovered the school-boy's +secret: that for the expression of unadulterated derision there is +nothing like the short sound of _a_, prolonged into a drawl. _Yah_, +_yah_, he cries; and sometimes, as you enter the woods, you may hear +him shouting so as to be heard for half a mile, "Here comes a fool with +a gun; look out for him!" + +It is natural to think of the shrike in connection with the jay, but the +two have points of unlikeness no less than of resemblance. The shrike +is a taciturn bird. If he were a politician, he would rely chiefly on +what is known as the "still hunt," although he too can scream loudly +enough on occasion. His most salient trait is his impudence, but even +that is of a negative type. "Who are you," he says, "that I should be at +the trouble to insult you?" He has made a study of the value of silence +as an indication of contempt, and is almost human in his ability to +stare straight by a person whose presence it suits him to ignore. His +imperturbability is wonderful. Watch him as closely as you please, you +will never discover what he is thinking about. Undertake, for instance, +now that the fellow is singing from the top of a small tree only a few +rods from where you are standing,--undertake to settle the long dispute +whether his notes are designed to decoy small birds within his reach. +Those whistles and twitters,--hear them! So miscellaneous! so different +from anything which would be expected from a bird of his size and +general disposition! so very like the notes of sparrows! They must be +imitative. You begin to feel quite sure of it. But just at this point +the sounds cease, and you look up to discover that Collurio has fallen +to preening his feathers in the most listless manner imaginable. "Look +at me," he says; "do I act like one on the watch for his prey? Indeed, +sir, I wish the innocent sparrows no harm; and besides, if you must know +it, I ate an excellent game-breakfast two hours ago, while laggards like +you were still abed." In the winter, which is the only season when I +have been able to observe him, the shrike is to the last degree +unsocial, and I have known him to stay for a month in one spot all by +himself, spending a good part of every day perched upon a telegraph +wire. He ought not to be very happy, with such a disposition, one would +think; but he seems to be well contented, and sometimes his spirits are +fairly exuberant. Perhaps, as the phrase is, he enjoys _himself_; in +which case he certainly has the advantage of most of us,--unless, +indeed, we are easily pleased. At any rate, he is philosopher enough to +appreciate the value of having few wants; and I am not sure but that he +anticipated the vaunted discovery of Teufelsdröckh, that the fraction of +life may be increased by lessening the denominator. But even the stoical +shrike is not without his epicurean weakness. When he has killed a +sparrow, he eats the brains first; after that, if he is still hungry, he +devours the coarser and less savory parts. In this, however, he only +shares the well-nigh universal inconsistency. There are never many +thorough-going stoics in the world. Epictetus declared with an oath +that he should be glad to see _one_.[7] To take everything as equally +good, to know no difference between bitter and sweet, penury and plenty, +slander and praise,--this is a great attainment, a Nirvana to which few +can hope to arrive. Some wise man has said (and the remark has more +meaning than may at once appear) that dying is usually one of the last +things which men do in this world. + +Against the foil of the butcher-bird's stolidity we may set the +inquisitive, garrulous temperament of the white-eyed vireo and the +yellow-breasted chat. The vireo is hardly larger than the goldfinch, but +let him be in one of his conversational moods, and he will fill a smilax +thicket with noise enough for two or three cat-birds. Meanwhile he keeps +his eye upon you, and seems to be inviting your attention to his +loquacious abilities. The chat is perhaps even more voluble. _Staccato_ +whistles and snarls follow each other at most extraordinary intervals of +pitch, and the attempt at showing off is sometimes unmistakable. +Occasionally he takes to the air, and flies from one tree to another; +teetering his body and jerking his tail, in an indescribable fashion, +and chattering all the while. His "inner consciousness" at such a moment +would be worth perusing. Possibly he has some feeling for the grotesque. +But I suspect not; probably what we laugh at as the antics of a clown is +all sober earnest to him. + +At best, it is very little we can know about what is passing in a bird's +mind. We label him with two or three _sesquipedalia verba_, give his +territorial range, describe his notes and his habits of nidification, +and fancy we have rendered an account of the bird. But how should we +like to be inventoried in such a style? "His name was John Smith; he +lived in Boston, in a three-story brick house; he had a baritone voice, +but was not a good singer." All true enough; but do you call that a +man's biography? + +The four birds last spoken of are all wanting in refinement. The jay and +the shrike are wild and rough, not to say barbarous, while the +white-eyed vireo and the chat have the character which commonly goes by +the name of oddity. All four are interesting for their strong +individuality and their picturesqueness, but it is a pleasure to turn +from them to creatures like our four common New England _Hylocichlæ_, or +small thrushes. These are the real patricians. With their modest but +rich dress, and their dignified, quiet demeanor, they stand for the +true aristocratic spirit. Like all genuine aristocrats, they carry an +air of distinction, of which no one who approaches them can long remain +unconscious. When you go into their haunts they do not appear so much +frightened as offended. "Why do you intrude?" they seem to say; "these +are our woods;" and they bow you out with all ceremony. Their songs are +in keeping with this character; leisurely, unambitious, and brief, but +in beauty of voice and in high musical quality excelling all other music +of the woods. However, I would not exaggerate, and I have not found even +these thrushes perfect. The hermit, who is my favorite of the four, has +a habit of slowly raising and depressing his tail when his mind is +disturbed--a trick of which it is likely he is unconscious, but which, +to say the least, is not a mark of good breeding; and the Wilson, while +every note of his song breathes of spirituality, has nevertheless a most +vulgar alarm call, a petulant, nasal, one-syllabled _yeork_. I do not +know anything so grave against the wood thrush or the Swainson; although +when I have fooled the former with decoy whistles, I have found him more +inquisitive than seemed altogether becoming to a bird of his quality. +But character without flaw is hardly to be insisted on by sons of Adam, +and, after all deductions are made, the claim of the _Hylocichlæ_ to +noble blood can never be seriously disputed. I have spoken of the four +together, but each is clearly distinguished from all the others; and +this I believe to be as true of mental traits as it is of details of +plumage and song. No doubt, in general, they are much alike; we may say +that they have the same qualities; but a close acquaintance will reveal +that the qualities have been mixed in different proportions, so that the +total result in each case is a personality strictly unique. + +And what is true of the _Hylocichlæ_ is true of every bird that flies. +Anatomy and dress and even voice aside, who does not feel the +dissimilarity between the cat-bird and the robin, and still more the +difference, amounting to contrast, between the cat-bird and the +bluebird? Distinctions of color and form are what first strike the eye, +but on better acquaintance these are felt to be superficial and +comparatively unimportant; _the_ difference is not one of outside +appearance. It is his gentle, high-bred manner and not his azure +coat, which makes the bluebird; and the cat-bird would be a cat-bird +in no matter what garb, so long as he retained his obtrusive +self-consciousness and his prying, busy-body spirit; all of which, being +interpreted, comes, it may be, to no more than this, "Fine feathers +don't make fine birds." + +Even in families containing many closely allied species, I believe that +every species has its own proper character, which sufficient intercourse +would enable us to make a due report of. Nobody ever saw a song-sparrow +manifesting the spirit of a chipper, and I trust it will not be in my +day that any of our American sparrows are found emulating the virtues of +their obstreperous immigrant cousin. Of course it is true of birds, as +of men, that some have much more individuality than others. But know any +bird or any man well enough, and he will prove to be himself, and nobody +else. To know the ten thousand birds of the world well enough to see +how, in bodily structure, habit of life, and mental characteristics, +every one is different from every other is the long and delightful task +which is set before the ornithologist. + +But this is not all. The ornithology of the future must be ready to give +an answer to the further question how these divergences of anatomy and +temperament originated. How came the chickadee by his endless fund of +happy spirits? Whence did the towhee derive his equanimity, and the +brown thrush his saturnine temper? The waxwing and the vireo have the +same vocal organs; why should the first do nothing but whisper, while +the second is so loud and voluble? Why is one bird belligerent and +another peaceable; one barbarous and another civilized; one grave and +another gay? Who can tell? We can make here and there a plausible +conjecture. We know that the behavior of the blue jay varies greatly in +different parts of the country, in consequence of the different +treatment which he receives. We judge that the chickadee, from the +peculiarity of his feeding habits, is more certain than most birds are +of finding a meal whenever he is hungry; and that, we are assured from +experience, goes a long way toward making a body contented. We think it +likely that the brown thrush is at some special disadvantage in this +respect, or has some peculiar enemies warring upon him; in which case it +is no more than we might expect that he should be a pessimist. And, with +all our ignorance, we are yet sure that everything has a cause, and we +would fain hold by the brave word of Emerson, "Undoubtedly we have no +questions to ask which are unanswerable." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] This does not harmonize exactly with a statement which Emerson makes +somewhere, to the effect that all the stoics were stoics indeed. But +Epictetus had never lived in Concord. + + + + + IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS + + Our music's in the hills. + + EMERSON. + + + IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. + + +It was early in June when I set out for my third visit to the White +Mountains, and the ticket-seller and the baggage-master in turn assured +me that the Crawford House, which I named as my destination, was not yet +open. They spoke, too, in the tone which men use when they mention +something which, but for uncommon stupidity, you would have known +beforehand. The kindly sarcasm missed its mark, however. I was aware +that the hotel was not yet ready for the "general public." But I said to +myself that, for once at least, I was not to be included in that +unfashionably promiscuous company. The vulgar crowd must wait, of +course. For the present the mountains, in reporters' language, were "on +private view;" and despite the ignorance of railway officials, I was one +of the elect. In plainer phrase, I had in my pocket a letter from the +manager of the famous inn before mentioned, in which he promised to do +what he could for my entertainment, even though he was not yet, as he +said, keeping a hotel. + +Possibly I made too much of a small matter; but it pleased me to feel +that this visit of mine was to be of a peculiarly intimate +character,--almost, indeed, as if Mount Washington himself had bidden me +to private audience. + +Compelled to wait three or four hours in North Conway, I improved the +opportunity to stroll once more down into the lovely Saco meadows, whose +"green felicity" was just now at its height. Here, perched upon a +fence-rail, in the shadow of an elm, I gazed at the snow-crowned Mount +Washington range, while the bobolinks and savanna sparrows made music on +every side. The song of the bobolinks dropped from above, and the +microphonic tune of the sparrows came up from the grass,--sky and earth +keeping holiday together. Almost I could have believed myself in Eden. +But, alas, even the birds themselves were long since shut out of that +garden of innocence, and as I started back toward the village a crow +went hurrying past me, with a kingbird in hot pursuit. The latter was +more fortunate than usual, or more plucky; actually alighting on the +crow's back and riding for some distance. I could not distinguish his +motions,--he was too far away for that,--but I wished him joy of his +victory, and grace to improve it to the full. For it is scandalous that +a bird of the crow's cloth should be a thief; and so, although I reckon +him among my friends,--in truth, _because_ I do so,--I am always able to +take it patiently when I see him chastised for his fault. Imperfect as +we all know each other to be, it is a comfort to feel that few of us are +so altogether bad as not to take more or less pleasure in seeing a +neighbor's character improved under a course of moderately painful +discipline. + +At Bartlett word came that the passenger car would go no further, but +that a freight train would soon start, on which, if I chose, I could +continue my journey. Accordingly, I rode up through the Notch on a +platform car,--a mode of conveyance which I can heartily and in all good +conscience recommend. There is no crowd of exclaiming tourists, the +train of necessity moves slowly, and the open platform offers no +obstruction to the view. For a time I had a seat, which after a little +two strangers ventured to occupy with me; for "it's an ill wind that +blows nobody good," and there happened to be on the car one piece of +baggage,--a coffin, inclosed in a pine box. Our sitting upon it could +not harm either it or us; nor did we wean any disrespect to the man, +whoever he might be, whose body was to be buried in it. Judging the +dead charitably, as in duty bound, I had no doubt he would have been +glad if he could have seen his "narrow house" put to such a use. So we +made ourselves comfortable with it, until, at an invisible station, it +was taken off. Then we were obliged to stand, or to retreat into a +miserable small box-car behind us. The platform would lurch a little now +and then, and I, for one, was not experienced as a "train hand;" but we +all kept our places till the Frankenstein trestle was reached. Here, +where for five hundred feet we could look down upon the jagged rocks +eighty feet below us, one of the trio suddenly had an errand into the +box-car aforesaid, leaving the platform to the other stranger and me. +All in all, the ride through the Notch had never before been so +enjoyable, I thought; and late in the evening I found myself once again +at the Crawford House, and in one of the best rooms,--as well enough I +might be, being the only guest in the house. + +The next morning, before it was really light, I was lying awake looking +at Mount Webster, while through the open window came the loud, cheery +song of the white-throated sparrows. The hospitable creatures seemed to +be inviting me to come at once into their woods; but I knew only too +well that, if the invitation were accepted, they would every one of +them take to hiding like bashful children. + +The white-throat is one of the birds for whom I cherish a special +liking. On my first trip to the mountains I jumped off the train for a +moment at Bartlett, and had hardly touched the ground before I heard his +familiar call. Here, then, was Mr. Peabody at home. Season after season +he had camped near me in Massachusetts, and many a time I had been +gladdened by his lively serenade; now he greeted me from his own native +woods. So far as my observations have gone, he is common throughout the +mountain region; and that in spite of the standard guide-book, which +puts him down as patronizing the Glen House almost exclusively. He knows +the routes too well to need any guide, however, and may be excused for +his ignorance of the official programme. It is wonderful how shy he +is,--the more wonderful, because, during his migrations, his manner is +so very different. Then, even in a city park you may watch him at your +leisure, while his loud, clear whistle is often to be heard rising above +a din of horse-cars and heavy wagons. But here, in his summer quarters, +you will listen to his song a hundred times before you once catch a +glimpse of the singer. At first thought it seems strange that a bird +should be most at home when he is away from home; but in the one case +he has nothing but his own safety to consult, while in the other he is +thinking of those whose lives are more to him than his own, and whose +hiding-place he is every moment on the alert to conceal. + +In Massachusetts we do not expect to find sparrows in deep woods. They +belong in fields and pastures, in roadside thickets, or by fence-rows +and old stone-walls bordered with barberry bushes and alders. But these +white-throats are children of the wilderness. It is one charm of their +music that it always comes, or seems to come, from such a +distance,--from far up the mountain-side, or from the inaccessible +depths of some ravine. I shall not soon forget its wild beauty as it +rose out of the spruce forests below me, while I was enjoying an evening +promenade, all by myself, over the long, flat summit of Moosilauke. From +his habit of singing late at night this sparrow is in some places known +as the nightingale. His more common name is the Peabody bird; while a +Jefferson man, who was driving me over the Cherry Mountain road, called +him the Peverly bird, and told me the following story:-- + +A farmer named Peverly was walking about his fields one spring morning, +trying to make up his mind whether the time had come to put in his +wheat. The question was important, and he was still in a deep quandary, +when a bird spoke up out of the wood and said, "Sow wheat, Peverly, +Peverly, Peverly!--Sow wheat, Peverly, Peverly, Peverly!" That settled +the matter. The wheat was sown, and in the fall a most abundant harvest +was gathered; and ever since then this little feathered oracle has been +known as the Peverly bird. + +We have improved on the custom of the ancients: they examined a bird's +entrails; we listen to his song. Who says the Yankee is not wiser than +the Greek? + +But I was lying abed in the Crawford House when the voice of +_Zonotrichia albicollis_ sent my thoughts thus astray, from Moosilauke +to Delphi. That day and the two following were passed in roaming about +the woods near the hotel. The pretty painted trillium was in blossom, as +was also the dark purple species, and the hobble-bush showed its broad +white cymes in all directions. Here and there was the modest little +spring beauty (_Claytonia Caroliniana_), and not far from the Elephant's +Head I discovered my first and only patch of dicentra, with its delicate +dissected leaves and its oddly shaped petals of white and pale yellow. +The false mitrewort (_Tiarella cordifolia_) was in flower likewise, and +the spur which is cut off Mount Willard by the railroad was all aglow +with rhodora,--a perfect flower-garden, on the monochromatic plan now so +much in vogue. Along the edge of the rocks on the summit of Mount +Willard a great profusion of the common saxifrage was waving in the +fresh breeze: + + "Ten thousand saw I at a glance, + Tossing their heads in sprightly dance." + +On the lower parts of the mountains, the foliage was already well out, +while the upper parts were of a fine purplish tint, which at first I was +unable to account for, but which I soon discovered to be due to the fact +that the trees at that height were still only in bud. + +A notable feature of the White Mountain forests is the absence of oaks +and hickories. These tough, hard woods would seem to have been created +on purpose to stand against wind and cold. But no; the hills are covered +with the fragile poplars and birches and spruces, with never an oak or +hickory among them. I suspect, indeed, that it is the very softness of +the former which gives them their advantage. For this, as I suppose, is +correlated with rapid growth; and where the summer is very short, speed +may count for more than firmness of texture, especially during the first +one or two years of the plant's life. Trees, like men, lose in one way +what they gain in another; or, in other words, they "have the defects +of their qualities." Probably Paul's confession, "When I am weak, then +am I strong," is after all only the personal statement of a general law, +as true of a poplar as of a Christian. For we all believe (do we not?) +that the world is a universe, governed throughout by one Mind, so that +whatever holds in one part is good everywhere. + +But it was June, and the birds, who were singing from daylight till +dark, would have the most of my attention. It was pleasant to find here +two comparatively rare warblers, of whom I had before had only casual +glimpses,--the mourning warbler and the bay-breasted. The former was +singing his loud but commonplace ditty within a few rods of the piazza +on one side of the house, while his congener, the Maryland +yellow-throat, was to be heard on the other side, along with the +black-cap (_Dendroeca striata_), the black-and-yellow, and the +Canadian flycatcher. The mourning warbler's song, as I heard it, was +like this: _Whit whit whit_, _wit wit_. The first three notes were +deliberate and loud, on one key, and without accent. The last two were +pitched a little lower, and were shorter, with the accent on the first +of the pair; they were thinner in tone than the opening triplet, as is +meant to be indicated by the difference of spelling.[8] Others of the +family were the golden-crowned thrush, the small-billed water-thrush, +the yellow-rumped, the Blackburnian (with his characteristic _zillup_, +_zillup_, _zillup_), the black-throated green, the black-throated blue +(the last with his loud, coarse _kree_, _kree_, _kree_), the redstart, +and the elegant blue yellow-back. Altogether, they were a gorgeous +company. + +But the chief singers were the olive-backed thrushes and the winter +wrens. I should be glad to know on just what principle the olive-backs +and their near relatives, the hermits, distribute themselves throughout +the mountain region. Each species seems to have its own sections, to +which it returns year after year, and the olive-backed, being, as is +well known, the more northern species of the two, naturally prefers the +more elevated situations. I have found the latter abundant near the +Profile House, and for three seasons it has had exclusive possession of +the White Mountain Notch,--so far, at least, as I have been able to +discover.[9] The hermits, on the other hand, frequent such places as +North Conway, Gorham, Jefferson, Bethlehem, and the vicinity of the +Flume. Only once have I found the two species in the same neighborhood. +That was near the Breezy Point House, on the side of Mount Moosilauke; +but this place is so peculiarly romantic, with its noble amphitheatre of +hills, that I could not wonder neither species was willing to yield the +ground entirely to the other; and even here it was to be noticed that +the hermits were in or near the sugar-grove, while the Swainsons were in +the forest, far off in an opposite direction.[10] + +It is these birds, if any, whose music reaches the ears of the ordinary +mountain tourist. Every man who is known among his acquaintances to have +a little knowledge of such things is approached now and then with the +question, "What bird was it, Mr. So-and-So, that I heard singing up in +the mountains? I didn't see him; he was always ever so far off; but his +voice was wonderful, so sweet and clear and loud!" As a rule it may +safely be taken for granted that such interrogatories refer either to +the Swainson thrush or to the hermit. The inquirer is very likely +disposed to be incredulous when he is told that there are birds in his +own woods whose voice is so like that of his admired New Hampshire +songster that, if he were to hear the two together, he would not at +first be able to tell the one from the other. He has never heard them, +he protests; which is true enough, for he never goes into the woods of +his own town, or, if by chance he does, he leaves his ears behind him in +the shop. His case is not peculiar. Men and women gaze enraptured at New +Hampshire sunsets. How glorious they are, to be sure! What a pity the +sun does not sometimes set in Massachusetts! + +As a musician the olive-back is certainly inferior to the hermit, and, +according to my taste, he is surpassed also by the wood thrush and the +Wilson; but he is a magnificent singer, for all that, and when he is +heard in the absence of the others it is often hard to believe that any +one of them could do better. A good idea of the rhythm and length of his +song may be gained by pronouncing somewhat rapidly the words, "I love, I +love, I love you," or, as it sometimes runs, "I love, I love, I love you +truly." How literal this translation is I am not scholar enough to +determine, but without question it gives the sense substantially. + +The winter wrens were less numerous than the thrushes, I think, but, +like them, they sang at all hours of the day, and seemed to be well +distributed throughout the woods. We can hardly help asking how it is +that two birds so very closely related as the house wren and the winter +wren should have been chosen haunts so extremely diverse,--the one +preferring door-yards in thickly settled villages, the other keeping +strictly to the wildest of all wild places. But whatever the +explanation, we need not wish the fact itself different. Comparatively +few ever hear the winter wren's song, to be sure (for you will hardly +get it from a hotel piazza), but it is not the less enjoyed on that +account. There is such a thing as a bird's making himself too common; +and probably it is true even of the great _prima donna_ that it is not +those who live in the house with her who find most pleasure in her +music. Moreover, there is much in time and circumstance. You hear a song +in the village street, and pass along unmoved; but stand in the silence +of the forest, with your feet in a bed of creeping snowberry and oxalis, +and the same song goes to your very soul. + +The great distinction of the winter wren's melody is its marked rhythm +and accent, which give it a martial, fife-like character. Note tumbles +over note in the true wren manner, and the strain comes to an end so +suddenly that for the first few times you are likely to think that the +bird has been interrupted. In the middle is a long in-drawn note, much +like one of the canary's. The odd little creature does not get far away +from the ground. I have never seen him sing from a living tree or bush, +but always from a stump or a log, or from the root or branch of an +overturned tree,--from something, at least, of nearly his own color.[11] +The song is intrinsically one of the most beautiful, and in my ears it +has the further merit of being forever associated with reminiscences of +ramblings among the White Hills. How well I remember an early morning +hour at Profile Lake, when it came again and again across the water from +the woods on Mount Cannon, under the Great Stone Face! + +Whichever way I walked, I was sure of the society of the snow-birds. +They hopped familiarly across the railroad track in front of the +Crawford House, and on the summit of Mount Washington were scurrying +about among the rocks, opening and shutting their pretty white-bordered +fans. Half-way up Mount Willard I sat down to rest on a stone, and after +a minute or two out dropped a snow-bird at my feet, and ran across the +road, trailing her wings. I looked under the bank for her nest, but, to +my surprise, could find nothing of it. So I made sure of knowing the +place again, and continued my tramp. Returning two hours later, I sat +down upon the same bowlder, and watched for the bird to appear as +before; but she had gathered courage from my former failure,--or so it +seemed,--and I waited in vain till I rapped upon the ground over her +head. Then she scrambled out and limped away, repeating her innocent but +hackneyed ruse. This time I was resolved not to be baffled. The nest was +there, and I would find it. So down on my knees I got, and scrutinized +the whole place most carefully. But though I had marked the precise +spot, there was no sign of a nest. I was about giving over the search +ignominiously, when I descried a slight opening between the overhanging +roof of the bank and a layer of earth which some roots held in place +close under it. Into this slit I inserted my fingers, and there, +entirely out of sight, was the nest full of eggs. No man could ever have +found it, had the bird been brave and wise enough to keep her seat. +However, I had before this noticed that the snow-bird, while often +extremely clever in choosing a building site, is seldom very skillful in +keeping a secret. I saw him one day standing on the side of the same +Mount Willard road,[12] gesticulating and scolding with all his might, +as much, as to say, "Please don't stop here! Go straight along, I beg of +you! Our nest is right under this bank!" And one glance under the bank +showed that I had not misinterpreted his demonstrations. For all that, I +do not feel like taking a lofty tone in passing judgment upon Junco. He +is not the only one whose wisdom is mixed with foolishness. There is at +least one other person of whom the same is true,--a person of whom I +have nevertheless a very good opinion, and with whom I am, or ought to +be, better acquainted than I am with any animal that wears feathers. + +The prettiest snow-bird's nest I ever saw was built beside the Crawford +bridle path, on Mount Clinton, just before the path comes out of the +woods at the top. It was lined with hair-moss (a species of +_Polytrichum_) of a bright orange color, and with its four or five +white, lilac-spotted eggs made so attractive a picture that I was +constrained to pause a moment to look at it, even though I had three +miles of a steep, rough footpath to descend, with a shower threatening +to overtake me before I could reach the bottom. I wondered whether the +architects really possessed an eye for color, or had only stumbled upon +this elegant bit of decoration. On the whole, it seemed more charitable +to conclude the former; and not only more charitable, but more +scientific as well. For, if I understand the matter aright, Mr. Darwin +and his followers have settled upon the opinion that birds do display an +unmistakable fondness for bright tints; that, indeed, the males of many +species wear brilliant plumage for no other reason than that their mates +prefer them in that dress. Moreover, if a bird in New South Wales adorns +her bower with shells and other ornaments, why may not our little +Northern darling beautify her nest with such humbler materials as her +surroundings offer? On reflection, I am more and more convinced that the +birds knew what they were doing; probably the female the moment she +discovered the moss, called to her mate, "Oh, look, how lovely! Do, my +dear, let's line our nest with it!" + +This artistic structure was found on the anniversary of the battle of +Bunker Hill, a day which I had been celebrating, as best I could, by +climbing the highest hill in New England. Plunging into the woods within +fifty yards of the Crawford House, I had gone up and up, and on and on, +through a magnificent forest, and then over more magnificent rocky +heights, until I stood at last on the platform of the hotel at the +summit. True, the path, which I had never traveled before, was wet and +slippery, with stretches of ice and snow here and there; but the +shifting view was so grand, the atmosphere so bracing, and the solitude +so impressive that I enjoyed every step, till it came to clambering up +the Mount Washington cone over the bowlders. At this point, to speak +frankly, I began to hope that the ninth mile would prove to be a short +one. The guide-books are agreed in warning the visitor against making +this ascent without a companion, and no doubt they are right in so +doing. A crippling accident would almost inevitably be fatal, while for +several miles the trail is so indistinct that it would be difficult, if +not impossible, to follow it in a fog. And yet, if one is willing to +take the risk (and is not so unfortunate as never to have learned how to +keep himself company), he will find a very considerable compensation in +the peculiar pleasure to be experienced in being absolutely alone above +the world. For myself, I was shut up to going in this way or not going +at all; and a Bostonian must do something patriotic on the Seventeenth +of June. But for all that, if the storm which chased me down the +mountains in the afternoon, clouding first Mount Washington and then +Mount Pleasant behind me, and shutting me in-doors all the next day, had +started an hour sooner, or if I had been detained an hour later, it is +not impossible that I might now be writing in a different strain. + +My reception at the top was none of the heartiest. The hotel was tightly +closed, while a large snow-bank stood guard before the door. However, I +invited myself into the Signal Service Station, and made my wants known +to one of the officers, who very kindly spread a table with such things +as he and his companions had just been eating. It would be out of place +to say much about the luncheon: the bread and butter were good, and the +pudding was interesting. I had the cook's word for it that the latter +was made of corn-starch, but he volunteered no explanation of its color, +which was nearly that of chocolate. As a working hypothesis I adopted +the molasses or brown-sugar theory, but a brief experiment (as brief as +politeness permitted) indicated a total absence of any saccharine +principle. But then, what do we climb mountains for, if not to see +something out of the common course? On the whole, if this department of +our national government is ever on trial for extravagance in the matter +of high living, I shall be moved to offer myself as a competent witness +for the defense. + +A company of chimney-swifts were flying criss-cross over the summit, and +one of the men said that he presumed they lived there. I took the +liberty to doubt his opinion, however. To me it seemed nothing but a +blunder that they should be there even for an hour. There could hardly +be many insects at that height, I thought, and I had abundant cause to +know that the woods below were full of them. I knew, also, that the +swifts knew it; for while I had been prowling about between Crawford's +and Fabyan's, they had several times shot by my head so closely that I +had instinctively fallen to calculating the probable consequences of a +collision. But, after all, the swift is no doubt a far better +entomologist than I am, though he has never heard of Packard's Guide. +Possibly there are certain species of insects, and those of a peculiarly +delicate savor, which are to be obtained only at about this altitude. + +The most enjoyable part of the Crawford path is the five miles from the +top of Mount Clinton to the foot of the Mount Washington cone. Along +this ridge I was delighted to find in blossom two beautiful Alpine +plants, which I had missed in previous (July) visits,--the diapensia +(_Diapensia Lapponica_) and the Lapland rose-bay (_Rhododendron +Lapponicum_),--and to get also a single forward specimen of _Potentilla +frigida_. Here and there was a humblebee, gathering honey from the small +purple catkins of the prostrate willows, now in full bloom. (Rather +high-minded humblebees, they seemed, more than five thousand feet above +the sea!) Professional entomologists (the chimney-swift, perhaps, +included) may smile at my simplicity, but I was surprised to find this +"animated torrid zone," this "insect lover of the sun," in such a +Greenland climate. Did he not know that his own poet had, described him +as "hot midsummer's petted crone"? But possibly he was equally surprised +at my appearance. He might even have taken his turn at quoting +Emerson:-- + + "Pants up hither the spruce clerk + From South Cove and City Wharf"?[13] + +Of the two, he was unquestionably the more at home, for he was living +where in forty-eight hours I should have found my death. So much is +_Bombus_ better than a man. + +In a little pool of water, which seemed to be nothing but a transient +puddle caused by the melting snow, was a tiny fish. I asked him by what +miracle he got there, but he could give no explanation. He, too, might +well enough have joined the noble company of Emersonians:-- + + "I never thought to ask, I never knew; + But, in my simple ignorance, suppose + The self-same Power that brought me here brought you." + +Almost at the very top of Mount Clinton I was saluted by the familiar +ditty of the Nashville warbler. I could hardly believe my ears; but +there was no mistake, for the bird soon appeared in plain sight. Had it +been one of the hardier-seeming species, the yellow-rumped for example, +I should not have thought it very strange; but this dainty +_Helminthophaga_, so common in the vicinity of Boston, did appear to be +out of his latitude, summering here on Alpine heights. With a good pair +of wings, and the whole continent to choose from, he surely might have +found some more congenial spot than this in which to bring up his little +family. I took his presence to be only an individual freak, but a +subsequent visitor, who made the ascent from the Glen, reported the same +species on that side also, and at about the same height. + +These signs of life on bleak mountain ridges are highly interesting and +suggestive. The fish, the humblebees, the birds, and a mouse which +scampered away to its hole amid the rocks,--all these might have found +better living elsewhere. But Nature will have her world full. Stunted +life is better than none, she thinks. So she plants her forests of +spruces, and keeps them growing, where, with all their efforts, they +cannot get above the height of a man's knee. There is no beauty about +them, no grace. They sacrifice symmetry and everything else for the sake +of bare existence, reminding one of Satan's remark, "All that a man hath +will he give for his life." + +Very admirable are the devices by which vegetation maintains itself +against odds. Everybody notices that many of the mountain species, like +the diapensia, the rose-bay, the Greenland sandwort (called the mountain +daisy by the Summit House people, for some inscrutable reason), and the +phyllodoce, have blossoms disproportionately large and handsome; as if +they realized that, in order to attract their indispensable allies, the +insects, to these inhospitable regions, they must offer them some +special inducements. Their case is not unlike that of a certain mountain +hotel which might be named, which happens to be poorly situated, but +which keeps itself full, nevertheless, by the peculiar excellence of its +_cuisine_. + +It does not require much imagination to believe that these hardy +vegetable mountaineers love their wild, desolate dwelling-places as +truly as do the human residents of the region. An old man in Bethlehem +told me that sometimes, during the long, cold winter, he felt that +perhaps it would be well for him, now his work was done, to sell his +"place" and go down to Boston to live, near his brother. "But then," he +added, "you know it's dangerous transplanting an old tree; you're likely +as not to kill it." Whatever we have, in this world, we must pay for +with the loss of something else. The bitter must be taken with the +sweet, be we plants, animals, or men. These thoughts recurred to me a +day or two later, as I lay on the summit of Mount Agassiz, in the sun +and out of the wind, gazing down into the Franconia Valley, then in all +its June beauty. Nestled under the lee of the mountain, but farther from +the base, doubtless, than it seemed from my point of view, was a small +dwelling, scarcely better than a shanty. Two or three young children +were playing about the door, and near them was the man of the house +splitting wood. The air was still enough for me to hear every blow, +although it reached me only as the axe was again over the man's head, +ready for the next descent. It was a charming picture,--the broad, green +valley full of sunshine and peace, and the solitary cottage, from whose +doorstep might be seen in one direction the noble Mount Washington +range, and in another the hardly less noble Franconias. How easy to live +simply and well in such a grand seclusion! But soon there came a thought +of Wordsworth's sonnet, addressed to just such a mood, "Yes, there is +holy pleasure in thine eye," and I felt at once the truth of his +admonition. What if the cottage really were mine,--mine to spend a +lifetime in? How quickly the poetry would turn to prose! + +An hour afterwards, on my way back to the Sinclair House, I passed a +group of men at work on the highway. One of them was a little apart from +the rest, and out of a social impulse I accosted him with the remark, "I +suppose, in heaven, the streets never will need mending." Quick as +thought came the reply: "Well, I hope not. If I ever _get_ there, I +don't want to work on the _road_." Here spoke universal human nature, +which finds its strong argument for immortality in its discontent with +matters as they now are. The one thing we are all sure of is that we +were born for something better than our present employment; and even +those who school themselves most religiously in the virtue of +contentment know very well how to define that grace so as not to +exclude from it a comfortable mixture of "divine dissatisfaction." Well +for us if we are still able to stand in our place and do faithfully our +allotted task, like the mountain spruces and the Bethlehemite +road-mender. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] He is said to have another song, beautiful and wren-like; but that I +have never heard. + +[9] This is making no account of the gray-cheeked thrushes, who are +found only near the _tops_ of the mountains. + +[10] I have since found both species at Willoughby Lake, Vermont and the +veery with them. + +[11] True when written, but now needing to be qualified by one +exception. See p. 226. + +[12] Beside this road (in June, 1883) I found a nest of the +yellow-bellied flycatcher (_Empidonax flaviventris_). It was built at +the base of a decayed stump, in a little depression between two roots, +and was partially overarched with growing moss. It contained four +eggs,--white, spotted with brown. I called upon the bird half a dozen +times or more, and found her a model "keeper at home." On one occasion +she allowed my hand to come within two or three inches of her bill. In +every case she flew off without any outcry or ruse, and once at least +she fell immediately to fly-catching with admirable philosophy. So far +as I know, this is the only nest of the species ever found in New +England outside of Maine. But it is proper to add that I did not capture +the bird. + +[13] But by this time the clerk's appearance was, to say the least, not +reprehensibly "spruce." For one thing, what with the moisture and the +sharp stones, he was already becoming jealous of his shoes, lest they +should not hold together till he could get back to the Crawford House. + + + + + PHILLIDA AND CORIDON. + + Fierce warres and faithful loves shall moralize my song. + + SPENSER. + + Much ado there was, God wot: + He would love, and she would not. + + NICHOLAS BRETON. + + + PHILLIDA AND CORIDON. + + +The happiness of birds, heretofore taken for granted, and long ago put +to service in a proverb, is in these last days made a matter of doubt. +It transpires that they are engaged without respite in a struggle for +existence,--a struggle so fierce that at least two of them perish every +year for one that survives.[14] How, then, can they be otherwise than +miserable? + +There is no denying the struggle, of course; nor need we question some +real effect produced by it upon the cheerfulness of the participants. +The more rationalistic of the smaller species, we may be sure, find it +hard to reconcile the existence of hawks and owls with the doctrine of +an all-wise Providence; while even the most simple-minded of them can +scarcely fail to realize that a world in which one is liable any day to +be pursued by a boy with a shot-gun is not in any strict sense +paradisiacal. + +And yet, who knows the heart of a bird? A child, possibly, or a poet; +certainly not a philosopher. And happiness, too,--is that something of +which the scientific mind can render us a quite adequate description? Or +is it, rather, a wayward, mysterious thing, coming often when least +expected, and going away again when, by all tokens, it ought to remain? +How is it with ourselves? Do we wait to weigh all the good and evil of +our state, to take an accurate account of it _pro_ and _con_, before we +allow ourselves to be glad or sorry? Not many of us, I think. Mortuary +tables may demonstrate that half the children born in this country fail +to reach the age of twenty years. But what then? Our "expectation of +life" is not based upon statistics. The tables may be correct, for aught +we know; but they deal with men in general and on the average; they have +no message for you and me individually. And it seems not unlikely that +birds may be equally illogical; always expecting to live, and not die, +and often giving themselves up to impulses of gladness without stopping +to inquire whether, on grounds of absolute reason, these impulses are to +be justified. Let us hope so, at all events, till somebody proves the +contrary. + +But even looking at the subject a little more philosophically, we may +say--and be thankful to say it--that the joy of life is not dependent +upon comfort, nor yet upon safety. The essential matter is that the +heart be engaged. Then, though we be toiling up the Matterhorn, or swept +along in the rush of a bayonet charge, we may still find existence not +only endurable, but in the highest degree exhilarating. On the other +hand, if there is no longer anything we care for; if enthusiasm is dead, +and hope also, then, though we have all that money can buy, suicide is +perhaps the only fitting action that is left for us,--unless, perchance, +we are still able to pass the time in writing treatises to prove that +everybody else ought to be as unhappy as ourselves. + +Birds have many enemies and their full share of privation, but I do not +believe that they often suffer from _ennui_. Having "neither storehouse +nor barn,"[15] they are never in want of something to do. From sunrise +till noon there is the getting of breakfast, then from noon till sunset +the getting of dinner,--both out-of-doors, and without any trouble of +cookery or dishes,--a kind of perpetual picnic. What could be simpler +or more delightful? Carried on in this way, eating is no longer the +coarse and sensual thing we make it, with our set meal-times and +elaborate preparations. + +Country children know that there are two ways to go berrying. According +to the first of these you stroll into the pasture in the cool of the +day, and at your leisure pick as many as you choose of the ripest and +largest of the berries, putting every one into your mouth. This is +agreeable. According to the second, you carry a basket, which you are +expected to bring home again well filled. And this method--well, tastes +will differ, but following the good old rule for judging in such cases, +I must believe that most unsophisticated persons prefer the other. The +hand-to-mouth process certainly agrees best with our idea of life in +Eden; and, what is more to the purpose now, it is the one which the +birds, still keeping the garden instead of tilling the ground, continue +to follow. + +That this unworldliness of the birds has any religious or theological +significance I do not myself suppose. Still, as anybody may see, there +are certain very plain Scripture texts on their side. Indeed, if birds +were only acute theologians, they would unquestionably proceed to turn +these texts (since they find it so easy to obey them) into the basis of +a "system of truth." Other parts of the Bible must be _interpreted_, to +be sure (so the theory would run); but _these_ statements mean just what +they say, and whoever meddles with them is carnally minded and a +rationalist. + +Somebody will object, perhaps, that, with our talk about a "perpetual +picnic," we are making a bird's life one cloudless holiday; +contradicting what we have before admitted about a struggle for +existence, and leaving out of sight altogether the seasons of scarcity, +the storms, and the biting cold. But we intend no such foolish +recantation. These hardships are real enough, and serious enough. What +we maintain is that evils of this kind are not necessarily inconsistent +with enjoyment, and may even give to life an additional zest. It is a +matter of every-day observation that the people who have nothing to do +except to "live well" (as the common sarcasm has it) are not always the +most cheerful; while there are certain diseases, like pessimism and the +gout, which seem appointed to wait on luxury and idleness,--as though +nature were determined to have the scales kept somewhat even. And surely +this divine law of compensation has not left the innocent birds +unprovided for,--the innocent birds of whom it was said, "Your heavenly +Father feedeth them." How must the devoted pair exult, when, in spite +of owls and hawks, squirrels and weasels, small boys and full-grown +oölogists, they have finally reared a brood of offspring! The long +uncertainty and the thousand perils only intensify the joy. In truth, so +far as this world is concerned, the highest bliss is never to be had +without antecedent sorrow; and even of heaven itself we may not scruple +to say that, if there are painters there, they probably feel obliged to +put some shadows into their pictures. + +But of course (and this is what we have been coming to through this long +introduction),--of course our friends of the air are happiest in the +season of mating; happiest, and therefore most attractive to us who find +our pleasure in studying them. In spring, of all times of the year, it +seems a pity that everybody should not turn ornithologist. For "all +mankind love a lover;" and the world, in consequence, has given itself +up to novel-reading, not knowing, unfortunately, how much better that +_rôle_ is taken by the birds than by the common run of story-book +heroes. + +People whose notions of the subject are derived from attending to the +antics of our imported sparrows have no idea how delicate and beautiful +a thing a real feathered courtship is. To tell the truth, these +foreigners have associated too long and too intimately with men, and +have fallen far away from their primal innocence. There is no need to +describe their actions. The vociferous and most unmannerly importunity +of the suitor, and the correspondingly spiteful rejection of his +overtures by the little vixen on whom his affections are for the moment +placed,--these we have all seen to our hearts' discontent. + +The sparrow will not have been brought over the sea for nothing, +however, if his bad behavior serves to heighten our appreciation of our +own native songsters, with their "perfect virtues" and "manners for the +heart's delight." + +The American robin, for instance, is far from being a bird of +exceptional refinement. His nest is rude, not to say slovenly, and his +general deportment is unmistakably common. But watch him when he goes +a-wooing, and you will begin to feel quite a new respect for him. How +gently he approaches his beloved! How carefully he avoids ever coming +disrespectfully near! No sparrow-like screaming, no dancing about, no +melodramatic gesticulation. If she moves from one side of the tree to +the other, or to the tree adjoining, he follows in silence. Yet every +movement is a petition, an assurance that his heart is hers and ever +must be. The action is extremely simple; there is nothing of which to +make an eloquent description; but I should pity the man who could +witness it with indifference. Not that the robin's suit is always +carried on in the same way; he is much too versatile for that. On one +occasion, at least, I saw him holding himself absolutely motionless, in +a horizontal posture, staring at his sweetheart as if he would charm her +with his gaze, and emitting all the while a subdued hissing sound. The +significance of this conduct I do not profess to have understood; it +ended with his suddenly darting at the female, who took wing and was +pursued. Not improbably the robin finds the feminine nature somewhat +fickle, and counts it expedient to vary his tactics accordingly; for it +is getting to be more and more believed that, in kind at least, the +intelligence of the lower animals is not different from ours. + +I once came unexpectedly upon a wood thrush, who was in the midst of a +performance very similar to this of the robin standing on the dead +branch of a tree, with his crown feathers erect, his bill set wide open, +and his whole body looking as rigid as death. His mate, as I perceived +the next moment, was not far away, on the same limb. If he was +attempting fascination, he had gone very clumsily about it, I thought, +unless his mate's idea of beauty was totally different from mine; for I +could hardly keep from laughing at his absurd appearance. It did not +occur to me till afterwards that he had perhaps heard of Othello's +method, and was at that moment acting out a story + + "of most disastrous chances, + Of moving accidents by flood and field, + Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach, + Of being taken by the insolent foe + And sold to slavery." + +How much depends upon the point of view! Here was I, ready to laugh; +while poor Desdemona only thought, "'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous +pitiful." Dear sympathetic soul! Let us hope that she was never called +to play out the tragedy. + +Two things are very noticeable during the pairing season,--the scarcity +of females and their indifference. Every one of them seems to have at +least two admirers dangling after her,[16] while she is almost sure to +carry herself as if a wedding were the last thing she would ever consent +to think of; and that not because of bashfulness, but from downright +aversion. The observer begins to suspect that the fair creatures have +really entered into some sort of no-marriage league, and that there are +not to be any nests this year, nor any young birds. But by and by he +discovers that somehow, he cannot surmise how,--it must have been when +his eyes were turned the other way,--the scene is entirely changed, the +maidens are all wedded, and even now the nests are being got ready. + +I watched a trio of cat-birds in a clump of alder bushes by the +roadside; two males, almost as a matter of course, "paying attentions" +to one female. Both suitors were evidently in earnest; each hoped to +carry off the prize, and perhaps felt that he should be miserable +forever if he were disappointed; and yet, on their part, everything was +being done decently and in order. So far as I saw, there was no +disposition to quarrel. Only let the dear creature choose one of them, +and the other would take his broken heart away. So, always at a modest +remove, they followed her about from bush to bush, entreating her in +most loving and persuasive tones to listen to their suit. But she, all +this time, answered every approach with a snarl; she would never have +anything to do with either of them; she disliked them both, and only +wished they would leave her to herself. This lasted as long as I stayed +to watch. Still I had little doubt she fully intended to accept one of +them, and had even made up her mind already which it should be. She +knew enough, I felt sure, to calculate the value of a proper maidenly +reluctance. How could her mate be expected to rate her at her worth, if +she allowed herself to be won too easily? Besides, she could afford not +to be in haste, seeing she had a choice of two. + +What a comfortably simple affair the matrimonial question is with the +feminine cat-bird! Her wooers are all of equally good family and all +equally rich. There is literally nothing for her to do but to look into +her own heart and choose. No temptation has she to sell herself for the +sake of a fashionable name or a fine house, or in order to gratify the +prejudice of father or mother. As for a marriage settlement, she knows +neither the name nor the thing. In fact, marriage in her thought is a +simple union of hearts, with no taint of anything mercantile about it. +Happy cat-bird! She perhaps imagines that human marriages are of the +same ideal sort! + +I have spoken of the affectionate language of these dusky lovers; but it +was noticeable that they did not sing, although, to have fulfilled the +common idea of such an affair, they certainly should have been doing so, +and each trying his best to outsing the other. Possibly there had +already been such a tournament before my arrival; or, for aught I know, +this particular female may have given out that she had no ear for +music. + +In point of fact, however, there was nothing peculiar in their conduct. +No doubt, in the earlier stages of a bird's attachment he is likely to +express his passion musically; but later he is not content to warble +from a tree-top. There are things to be said which cannot appropriately +be spoken at long range; and unless my study of novels has been to +little purpose, all this agrees well with the practices of human +gallants. Do not these begin by singing under the lady's window, or by +sending verses to her? and are not such proceedings intended to prepare +the way, as speedily as possible, for others of a more satisfying, +though it may be of a less romantic nature? + +Bearing this in mind, we may be able to account, in part at least, for +the inexperienced observer's disappointment when, fresh from the perusal +of (for example) the thirteenth chapter of Darwin's "Descent of Man," he +goes into the woods to look about for himself. He expects to find here +and there two or three songsters, each in turn doing his utmost to +surpass the brilliancy and power of the other's music; while a feminine +auditor sits in full view, preparing to render her verdict, and reward +the successful competitor with her own precious self. This would be a +pretty picture. Unfortunately, it is looked for in vain. The two or +three singers may be found, likely enough; but the female, if she be +indeed within hearing, is modestly hidden away somewhere in the bushes, +and our student is none the wiser. Let him watch as long as he please, +he will hardly see the prize awarded. + +Nevertheless he need not grudge the time thus employed; not, at any +rate, if he be sensitive to music. For it will be found that birds have +at least one attribute of genius: they can do their best only on great +occasions. Our brown thrush, for instance, is a magnificent singer, +albeit he is not of the best school, being too "sensational" to suit the +most exacting taste. His song is a grand improvisation: a good deal +jumbled, to be sure, and without any recognizable form or theme; and +yet, like a Liszt rhapsody, it perfectly answers its purpose,--that is, +it gives the performer full scope to show what he can do with his +instrument. You may laugh a little, if you like, at an occasional +grotesque or overwrought passage, but unless you are well used to it you +will surely be astonished. Such power and range of voice; such startling +transitions; such endless variety! And withal such boundless enthusiasm +and almost incredible endurance! Regarded as pure music, one strain of +the hermit thrush is to my mind worth the whole of it; just as a single +movement of Beethoven's is better than a world of Liszt transcriptions. +But in its own way it is unsurpassable. + +Still, though this is a meagre and quite unexaggerated account of the +ordinary song of the brown thrush, I have discovered that even he can be +outdone--by himself. One morning in early May I came upon three birds of +this species, all singing at once, in a kind of jealous frenzy. As they +sang they continually shifted from tree to tree, and one in particular +(the one nearest to where I stood) could hardly be quiet a moment. Once +he sang with full power while on the ground (or close to it, for he was +just then behind a low bush), after which he mounted to the very tip of +a tall pine, which bent beneath his weight. In the midst of the +hurly-burly one of the trio suddenly sounded the whip-poor-will's call +twice,--an absolutely perfect reproduction.[17] + +The significance of all this sound and fury,--what the prize was, if +any, and who obtained it,--this another can conjecture as well as +myself. I know no more than old Kaspar:---- + + "'Why, that I cannot tell,' said he, + But 'twas a famous victory.'" + +As I turned to come away, the contest all at once ceased, and the +silence of the woods, or what seemed like silence, was really +impressive. The chewinks and field sparrows were singing, but it was +like the music of a village singer after Patti; or, to make the +comparison less unjust, like the Pastoral Symphony of Handel after a +Wagner tempest. + +It is curious how deeply we are sometimes affected by a very trifling +occurrence. I have remembered many times a slight scene in which three +purple finches were the actors. Of the two males, one was in full adult +plumage of bright crimson, while the other still wore his youthful suit +of brown. First, the older bird suspended himself in mid air, and sang +most beautifully; dropping, as he concluded, to a perch beside the +female. Then the younger candidate, who was already sitting near by, +took his turn, singing nearly or quite as well as his rival, but without +quitting the branch, though his wings quivered. I saw no more. Yet, as I +say, I have often since thought of the three birds, and wondered whether +the bright feathers and the flying song carried the day against the +younger suitor. I fear they did. Sometimes, too, I have queried whether +young birds (who none the less are of age to marry) can be so very meek +or so very dull as never to rebel against the fashion that only the old +fellows shall dress handsomely; and I have tried in vain to imagine the +mutterings, deep and loud, which such a law would excite in certain +other quarters. It pains me to say it, but I suspect that taxation +without representation would seem a small injustice, in comparison. + +Like these linnets in the exceptional interest they excited were two +large seabirds, who suddenly appeared circling about over the woods, as +I was taking a solitary walk on a Sunday morning in April. One of them +was closely pursuing the other; not as though he were trying to overtake +her, but rather as though he were determined to keep her company. They +swept now this way, now that,--now lost to sight, and now reappearing; +and once they passed straight over my head, so that I heard the +whistling of their wings. Then they were off, and I saw them no more. +They came from far, and by night they were perhaps a hundred leagues +away. But I followed them with my blessing, and to this day I feel +toward them a little as I suppose we all do toward a certain few +strangers whom we have met here and there in our journeyings, and +chatted with for an hour or two. We had never seen them before; if we +learned their names we have long ago forgotten them; but somehow the +persons themselves keep a place in our memory, and even in our +affection. + + "I crossed a moor, with a name of its own + And a certain use in the world, no doubt; + Yet a hand's breadth of it shines alone + 'Mid the blank miles round about: + + "For there I picked up on the heather, + And there I put inside my breast, + A moulted feather, an eagle-feather! + Well, I forget the rest." + +Since we cannot ask birds for an explanation of their conduct, we have +nothing for it but to steal their secrets, as far as possible, by +patient and stealthy watching. In this way I hope, sooner or later, to +find out what the golden-winged woodpecker means by the shout with which +he makes the fields reëcho in the spring, especially in the latter half +of April. I have no doubt it has something to do with the process of +mating, but it puzzles me to guess just what the message can be which +requires to be published so loudly. Such a stentorian, long-winded cry! +You wonder where the bird finds breath for such an effort, and think he +must be a very ungentle lover, surely. But withhold your judgment for a +few days, till you see him and his mate gamboling about the branches of +some old tree, calling in soft, affectionate tones, _Wick-a-wick, +wick-a-wick_; then you will confess that, whatever failings the +golden-wing may have, he is not to be charged with insensibility. The +fact is that our "yellow-hammer" has a genius for noise. When he is +_very_ happy he drums. Sometimes, indeed, he marvels how birds who +haven't this resource are able to get through the world at all. Nor +ought we to think it strange if in his love-making he finds great use +for this his crowning accomplishment. True, we have nowhere read of a +human lover's serenading his mistress with a drum; but we must remember +what creatures of convention men are, and that there is no inherent +reason why a drum should not serve as well as a flute for such a +purpose. + + "All thoughts, all passions, all delights, + Whatever stirs this mortal frame, + _All_ are but ministers of Love, + And feed his sacred flame." + +I saw two of these flickers clinging to the trunk of a shell-bark tree; +which, by the way, is a tree after the woodpecker's own heart. One was +perhaps fifteen feet above the other, and before each was a strip of +loose bark, a sort of natural drum-head. First, the lower one "beat his +music out," rather softly. Then, as he ceased, and held his head back +to listen, the other answered him; and so the dialogue went on. +Evidently, they were already mated, and were now renewing their mutual +vows; for birds, to their praise be it spoken, believe in courtship +after marriage. The day happened to be Sunday, and it did occur to me +that possibly this was the woodpeckers' ritual,--a kind of High Church +service, with antiphonal choirs. But I dismissed the thought; for, on +the whole, the shouting seems more likely to be diagnostic, and in spite +of his gold-lined wings, I have set the flicker down as almost certainly +an old-fashioned Methodist. + +Speaking of courtship after marriage, I am reminded of a spotted +sandpiper, whose capers I amused myself with watching, one day last +June, on the shore of Saco Lake. As I caught sight of him, he was +straightening himself up, with a pretty, self-conscious air, at the same +time spreading his white-edged tail, and calling, _Tweet, tweet, +tweet_.[18] Afterwards he got upon a log, where, with head erect and +wings thrown forward and downward, he ran for a yard or two, calling as +before. This trick seemed especially to please him, and was several +times repeated. He ran rapidly, and with a comical prancing movement; +but nothing he did was half so laughable as the behavior of his mate, +who all this while dressed her feathers without once deigning to look at +her spouse's performance. Undoubtedly they had been married for several +weeks, and she was, by this time, well used to his nonsense. It must be +a devoted husband, I fancy, who continues to offer attentions when they +are received in such a spirit. + +Walking a log is a somewhat common practice with birds. I once detected +our little golden-crowned thrush showing off in this way to his mate, +who stood on the ground close at hand. In his case the head was lowered +instead of raised, and the general effect was heightened by his +curiously precise gait, which even on ordinary occasions is enough to +provoke a smile. + +Not improbably every species of birds has its own code of etiquette; +unwritten, of course, but carefully handed down from father to son, and +faithfully observed. Nor is it cause for wonder if, in our ignorant +eyes, some of these "society manners" look a little ridiculous. Even the +usages of fashionable human circles have not always escaped the laughter +of the profane. + +I was standing on the edge of a small thicket, observing a pair of +cuckoos as they made a breakfast out of a nest of tent caterpillars (it +was a feast rather than a common meal; for the caterpillars were +plentiful, and, as I judged, just at their best, being about half +grown), when a couple of scarlet tanagers appeared upon the scene. The +female presently selected a fine strip of cedar bark, and started off +with it, sounding a call to her handsome husband, who at once followed +in her wake. I thought, What a brute, to leave his wife to build the +house! But he, plainly enough, felt that in escorting her back and forth +he was doing all that ought to be expected of any well-bred, +scarlet-coated tanager. And the lady herself, if one might infer +anything from her tone and demeanor, was of the same opinion. I mention +this trifling occurrence, not to put any slight upon _Pyranga rubra_ +(who am I, that I should accuse so gentle and well dressed a bird of bad +manners?), but merely as an example of the way in which feathered +politeness varies. In fact, it seems not unlikely that the male tanager +may abstain on principle from taking any active part in constructing the +nest, lest his fiery color should betray its whereabouts. As for his +kindness and loyalty, I only wish I could feel as sure of one half the +human husbands whom I meet. + +It would be very ungallant of me, however, to leave my readers to +understand that the female bird is always so unsympathetic as most of +the descriptions thus far given would appear to indicate. In my memory +are several scenes, any one of which, if I could put it on paper as I +saw it, would suffice to correct such an erroneous impression. In one of +these the parties were a pair of chipping sparrows. Never was man so +churlish that his heart would not have been touched with the vision of +their gentle but rapturous delight. As they chased each other gayly from +branch to branch and from tree to tree, they flew with that delicate, +affected movement of the wings which birds are accustomed to use at such +times, and which, perhaps, bears the same relation to their ordinary +flight that dancing does to the every-day walk of men and women. The two +seemed equally enchanted, and both sang. Little they knew of the +"struggle for existence" and the "survival of the fittest." Adam and +Eve, in Paradise, were never more happy. + +A few weeks later, taking an evening walk, I was stopped by the sight of +a pair of cedar-birds on a stone wall. They had chosen a convenient flat +stone, and were hopping about upon it, pausing every moment or two to +put their little bills together. What a loving ecstasy possessed them! +Sometimes one, sometimes the other, sounded a faint lisping note, and +motioned for another kiss. But there is no setting forth the ineffable +grace and sweetness of their chaste behavior. I looked and looked, till +a passing carriage frightened them away. They were only common +cedar-birds; if I were to see them again I should not know them; but if +my pen were equal to my wish, they should be made immortal. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] Wallace, _Natural Selection_, p. 30. + +[15] The shrike lays up grasshoppers and sparrows, and the California +woodpecker hoards great numbers of acorns, but it is still in dispute, I +believe, whether thrift is the motive with either of them. Considering +what has often been done in similar cases, we may think it surprising +that the Scripture text above quoted (together with its exegetical +parallel, Matthew vi. 26) has never been brought into court to settle +the controversy; but to the best of my knowledge it never has been. + +[16] So near do birds come to Mr. Ruskin's idea that "a girl worth +anything ought to have always half a dozen or so of suitors under vow +for her." + +[17] + + "That's the wise thrush: he sings each song twice over, + Lest you should think he never could recapture + The first fine careless rapture!" + +The "authorities" long since forbade _Harporhynchus rufus_ to play the +mimic. Probably in the excitement of the moment this fellow forgot +himself. + +[18] May one who knows nothing of philology venture to inquire whether +the very close agreement of this _tweet_ with our sweet (compare also +the Anglo-Saxon _swéte_, the Icelandic _soetr_, and the Sanskrit +_svad_) does not point to a common origin of the Aryan and sandpiper +languages? + + + + + SCRAPING ACQUAINTANCE. + + A man that hath friends must show himself friendly. + + PROVERBS xviii. 24. + + + SCRAPING ACQUAINTANCE. + + +As I was crossing Boston Common, some years ago, my attention was caught +by the unusual behavior of a robin, who was standing on the lawn, +absolutely motionless, and every few seconds making a faint hissing +noise. So much engaged was he that, even when a dog ran near him, he +only started slightly, and on the instant resumed his statue-like +attitude. Wondering what this could mean, and not knowing how else to +satisfy my curiosity, I bethought myself of a man whose letters about +birds I had now and then noticed in the daily press. So, looking up his +name in the City Directory, and finding that he lived at such a number, +Beacon Street, I wrote him a note of inquiry. He must have been amused +as he read it; for I remember giving him the title of "Esquire," and +speaking of his communications to the newspapers as the ground of my +application to him. "Such is fame!" he likely enough said to himself. +"Here is a man with eyes in his head, a man, moreover, who has probably +been at school in his time,--for most of his words are spelled +correctly,--and yet he knows my name only as he has seen it signed once +in a while to a few lines in a newspaper." Thoughts like these, however, +did not prevent his replying to the note (my "valued favor") with all +politeness, although he confessed himself unable to answer my question; +and by the time I had occasion to trouble him again I had learned that +he was to be addressed as Doctor, and, furthermore, was an ornithologist +of world-wide reputation, being, in fact, one of the three joint-authors +of the most important work so far issued on the birds of North America. + +Certainly I was and am grateful to him (he is now dead) for his generous +treatment of my ignorance; but even warmer is my feeling toward that +city thrush, who, all unconscious of what he was doing, started me that +day on a line of study which has been ever since a continual delight. +Most gladly would I do him any kindness in my power; but I have little +doubt that, long ere this, he, too, has gone the way of all the earth. +As to what he was thinking about on that memorable May morning, I am as +much in the dark as ever. But there is no law against a bird's behaving +mysteriously, I suppose. Most of us, I am sure, often do things which +are inexplicable to ourselves, and once in a very great while, perhaps, +it would puzzle even our next-door neighbors to render a complete +account of our motives. + +Whatever the robin meant, however, and no doubt there was some good +reason for his conduct, he had given my curiosity the needed jog. Now, +at last, I would do what I had often dreamed of doing,--learn something +about the birds of my own region, and be able to recognize at least the +more common ones when I saw them. + +The interest of the study proved to be the greater for my ignorance, +which, to speak within bounds, was nothing short of wonderful; perhaps I +might appropriately use a more fashionable word, and call it phenomenal. +All my life long I had had a kind of passion for being out-of-doors; +and, to tell the truth, I had been so often seen wandering by myself in +out-of-the-way wood-paths, or sitting idly about on stone walls in +lonesome pastures, that some of my Philistine townsmen had most likely +come to look upon me as no better than a vagabond. Yet I was not a +vagabond, for all that. I liked work, perhaps, as well as the generality +of people. But I was unfortunate in this respect: while I enjoyed +in-door work, I hated to be in the house; and, on the other hand, while +I enjoyed being out-of-doors, I hated all manner of out-door +employment. I was not lazy, but I possessed--well, let us call it the +true aboriginal temperament; though I fear that this distinction will be +found too subtile, even for the well-educated, unless, along with their +education, they have a certain sympathetic bias, which, after all, is +the main thing to be depended on in such nice psychological +discriminations. + +With all my rovings in wood and field, however, I knew nothing of any +open-air study. Study was a thing of books. At school we were never +taught to look elsewhere for knowledge. Reading and spelling, geography +and grammar, arithmetic and algebra, geometry and trigonometry,--these +were studied, of course, as also were Latin and Greek. But none of our +lessons took us out of the school-room, unless it was astronomy, the +study of which I had nearly forgotten; and that we pursued in the +night-time, when birds and plants were as though they were not. I cannot +recollect that any one of my teachers ever called my attention to a +natural object. It seems incredible, but, so far as my memory serves, I +was never in the habit of observing the return of the birds in the +spring or their departure in the autumn; except, to be sure, that the +semi-annual flight of the ducks and geese was always a pleasant +excitement, more especially because there were several lakes +(invariably spoken of as ponds) in our vicinity, on the borders of +which the village "gunners" built pine-branch booths in the season. + +But now, as I have said, my ignorance was converted all at once into a +kind of blessing; for no sooner had I begun to read bird books, and +consult a cabinet of mounted specimens, than every turn out-of-doors +became full of all manner of delightful surprises. Could it be that what +I now beheld with so much wonder was only the same as had been going on +year after year in these my own familiar lanes and woods? Truly the +human eye is nothing more than a window, of no use unless the man looks +out of it. + +Some of the experiences of that period seem ludicrous enough in the +retrospect. Only two or three days after my eyes were first opened I was +out with a friend in search of wild-flowers (I was piloting him to a +favorite station for _Viola pubescens_), when I saw a most elegant +little creature, mainly black and white, but with brilliant orange +markings. He was darting hither and thither among the branches of some +low trees, while I stared at him in amazement, calling on my comrade, +who was as ignorant as myself, but less excited, to behold the prodigy. +Half trembling lest the bird should prove to be some straggler from the +tropics, the like of which would not be found in the cabinet before +mentioned, I went thither that very evening. Alas, my silly fears! there +stood the little beauty's exact counterpart, labeled _Setophaga +ruticilla_, the American redstart,--a bird which the manual assured me +was very common in my neighborhood. + +But it was not my eyes only that were opened, my ears also were touched. +It was as if all the birds had heretofore been silent, and now, under +some sudden impulse, had broken out in universal concert. What a +glorious chorus it was; and every voice a stranger! For a week or more I +was puzzled by a song which I heard without fail whenever I went into +the woods, but the author of which I could never set eyes on,--a song so +exceptionally loud and shrill, and marked by such a vehement crescendo, +that, even to my new-found ears, it stood out from the general medley a +thing by itself. Many times I struck into the woods in the direction +whence it came, but without getting so much as a flying glimpse of the +musician. Very mysterious, surely! Finally, by accident I believe, I +caught the fellow in the very act of singing, as he stood on a dead +pine-limb; and a few minutes later he was on the ground, walking about +(not hopping) with the primmest possible gait,--a small olive-brown +bird, with an orange crown and a speckled breast. Then I knew him for +the golden-crowned thrush; but it was not for some time after this that +I heard his famous evening song, and it was longer still before I found +his curious roofed nest. + +"Happy those early days," those days of childish innocence,--though I +was a man grown,--when every bird seemed newly created, and even the +redstart and the wood wagtail were like rarities from the ends of the +earth. Verily, my case was like unto Adam's, when every fowl of the air +was brought before him for a name. + +One evening, on my way back to the city after an afternoon ramble, I +stopped just at dusk in a grove of hemlocks, and soon out of the +tree-top overhead came a song,--a brief strain of about six notes, in a +musical but rather rough voice, and in exquisite accord with the quiet +solemnity of the hour. Again and again the sounds fell on my ear, and as +often I endeavored to obtain a view of the singer; but he was in the +thick of the upper branches, and I looked for him in vain. How delicious +the music was! a perfect lullaby, drowsy and restful; like the +benediction of the wood on the spirit of a tired city-dweller. I blessed +the unknown songster in return; and even now I have a feeling that the +peculiar enjoyment which the song of the black-throated green warbler +never fails to afford me may perhaps be due in some measure to its +association with that twilight hour. + +To this same hemlock grove I was in the habit, in those days, of going +now and then to listen to the evening hymn of the veery, or Wilson +thrush. Here, if nowhere else, might be heard music fit to be called +sacred. Nor did it seem a disadvantage, but rather the contrary, when, +as sometimes happened, I was compelled to take my seat in the edge of +the wood, and wait quietly, in the gathering darkness, for vespers to +begin. The veery's mood is not so lofty as the hermit's, nor is his +music to be compared for brilliancy and fullness with that of the wood +thrush; but, more than any other bird-song known to me, the veery's has, +if I may say so, the accent of sanctity. Nothing is here of +self-consciousness; nothing of earthly pride or passion. If we chance to +overhear it and laud the singer, that is our affair. Simple-hearted +worshiper that he is, he has never dreamed of winning praise for himself +by the excellent manner in which he praises his Creator,--an absence of +thrift, which is very becoming in thrushes, though, I suppose, it is +hardly to be looked for in human choirs. + +And yet, for all the unstudied ease and simplicity of the veery's +strain, he is a great master of _technique_. In his own artless way he +does what I have never heard any other bird attempt: he gives to his +melody all the force of harmony. How this unique and curious effect, +this vocal double-stopping, as a violinist might term it, is produced, +is not certainly known; but it would seem that it must be by an +_arpeggio_, struck with such consummate quickness and precision that the +ear is unable to follow it, and is conscious of nothing but the +resultant chord. At any rate, the thing itself is indisputable, and has +often been commented on. + +Moreover, this is only half the veery's technical proficiency. Once in a +while, at least, he will favor you with a delightful feat of +ventriloquism; beginning to sing in single voice, as usual, and anon, +without any noticeable increase in the loudness of the tones, diffusing +the music throughout the wood, as if there were a bird in every tree, +all singing together in the strictest time. I am not sure that all +members of the species possess this power, and I have never seen the +performance alluded to in print; but I have heard it when the illusion +was complete, and the effect most beautiful. + +Music so devout and unostentatious as the veery's does not appeal to the +hurried or the preoccupied. If you would enjoy it you must bring an ear +to hear. I have sometimes pleased myself with imagining a resemblance +between it and the poetry of George Herbert,--both uncared for by the +world, but both, on that very account, prized all the more dearly by the +few in every generation whose spirits are in tune with theirs. + +This bird is one of a group of small thrushes called the _Hylocichlæ_, +of which group we have five representatives in the Atlantic States: the +wood thrush; the Wilson, or tawny thrush; the hermit; the olive-backed, +or Swainson; and the gray-cheeked, or Alice's thrush. To the unpracticed +eye the five all look alike. All of them, too, have the same glorious +voice, so that the young student is pretty sure to find it a matter of +some difficulty to tell them apart. Yet there are differences of +coloration which may be trusted as constant, and to which, after a +while, the eye becomes habituated; and, at the same time, each species +has a song and call-notes peculiar to itself. One cannot help wishing, +indeed, that he might hear the five singing by turns in the same wood. +Then he could fix the distinguishing peculiarities of the different +songs in his mind so as never to confuse them again. But this is more +than can be hoped for; the listener must be content with hearing two, +or at the most three, of the species singing together, and trust his +memory to make the necessary comparison. + +The song of the wood thrush is perhaps the most easily set apart from +the rest, because of its greater compass of voice and bravery of +execution. The Wilson's song, as you hear it by itself, seems so +perfectly characteristic that you fancy you can never mistake any other +for it; and yet, if you are in northern New England only a week +afterwards, you may possibly hear a Swainson (especially if he happens +to be one of the best singers of his species, and, more especially +still, if he happens to be at just the right distance away), who you +will say, at first thought, is surely a Wilson. The difficulty of +distinguishing the voices is naturally greatest in the spring, when they +have not been heard for eight or nine months. Here, as elsewhere, the +student must be willing to learn the same lesson over and over, letting +patience have her perfect work. That the five songs are really +distinguishable is well illustrated by the fact (which I have before +mentioned), that the presence of the Alice thrush in New England during +the breeding season was announced as probable by myself, simply on the +strength of a song which I had heard in the White Mountains, and which, +as I believed, must be his, notwithstanding I was entirely unacquainted +with it, and though all our books affirmed that the Alice thrush was not +a summer resident of any part of the United States. + +It is worth remarking, also, in this connection, that the _Hylocichlæ_ +differ more decidedly in their notes of alarm than in their songs. The +wood thrush's call is extremely sharp and brusque, and is usually fired +off in a little volley; that of the Wilson is a sort of whine, or snarl, +in distressing contrast with his song; the hermit's is a quick, _sotto +voce_, sometimes almost inaudible _chuck_; the Swainson's is a mellow +whistle; while that of the Alice is something between the Swainson's and +the Wilson's,--not so gentle and refined as the former, nor so +outrageously vulgar as the latter. + +In what is here said about discriminating species it must be understood +that I am not speaking of such identification as will answer a strictly +scientific purpose. For that the bird must be shot. To the maiden + + "whose light blue eyes + Are tender over drowning flies," + +this decree will no doubt sound cruel. Men who pass laws of that sort +may call themselves ornithologists, if they will; for her part she calls +them butchers. We might turn on our fair accuser, it is true, with some +inquiry about the two or three bird-skins which adorn her bonnet. But +that would be only giving one more proof of our heartlessness; and, +besides, unless a man is downright angry he can scarcely feel that he +has really cleared himself when he has done nothing more than to point +the finger and say, You're another. However, I am not set for the +defence of ornithologists. They are abundantly able to take care of +themselves without the help of any outsider. I only declare that, even +to my unprofessional eye, this rule of theirs seems wise and necessary. +They know, if their critics do not, how easy it is to be deceived; how +many times things have been seen and minutely described, which, as was +afterwards established, could not by any possibility have been visible. +Moreover, regret it as we may, it is clear that in this world nobody can +escape giving and taking more or less pain. We of the sterner sex are +accustomed to think that even our blue-eyed censors are not entirely +innocent in this regard; albeit, for myself, I am bound to believe that +generally they are not to blame for the tortures they inflict upon us. + +Granting the righteousness of the scientist's caution, however, we may +still find a less rigorous code sufficient for our own non-scientific, +though I hope not unscientific, purpose. For it is certain that no great +enjoyment of bird study is possible for some of us, if we are never to +be allowed to call our gentle friends by name until in every case we +have gone through the formality of a _post-mortem_ examination. +Practically, and for every-day ends, we may know a robin, or a redstart, +or even a hermit thrush, when we see him, without first turning the bird +into a specimen. + +Probably there are none of our birds which afford more surprise and +pleasure to a novice than the family of warblers. A well-known +ornithologist has related how one day he wandered into the forest in an +idle mood, and accidentally catching a gleam of bright color overhead, +raised his gun and brought the bird to his feet; and how excited and +charmed he was with the wondrous beauty of his little trophy. Were there +other birds in the woods as lovely as this? He would see for himself. +And that was the beginning of what bids fair to prove a life-long +enthusiasm. + +Thirty-eight warblers are credited to New England; but it would be safe +to say that not more than three of them are known to the average +New-Englander. How should he know them, indeed? They do not come about +the flower-garden like the humming-bird, nor about the lawn like the +robin; neither can they be hunted with a dog like the grouse and the +woodcock. Hence, for all their gorgeous apparel, they are mainly left to +students and collectors. Of our common species the most beautiful are, +perhaps, the blue yellow-back, the blue golden-wing, the Blackburnian, +the black-and-yellow, the Canada flycatcher, and the redstart; with the +yellow-rump, the black-throated green, the prairie warbler, the summer +yellow-bird, and the Maryland yellow-throat coming not far behind. But +all of them are beautiful, and they possess, besides, the charm of great +diversity of plumage and habits; while some of them have the further +merit, by no means inconsiderable, of being rare. + +It was a bright day for me when the blue golden-winged warbler settled +in my neighborhood. On my morning walk I detected a new song, and, +following it up, found a new bird,--a result which is far from being a +thing of course. The spring migration was at its height, and at first I +expected to have the pleasure of my new friend's society for only a day +or two; so I made the most of it. But it turned out that he and his +companion had come to spend the summer, and before very long I +discovered their nest. This was still unfinished when I came upon it; +but I knew pretty well whose it was, having several times noticed the +birds about the spot, and a few days afterwards the female bravely sat +still, while I bent over her, admiring her courage and her handsome +dress. I paid my respects to the little mother almost daily, but +jealously guarded her secret, sharing it only with a kind-hearted woman, +whom I took with me on one of my visits. But, alas! one day I called, +only to find the nest empty. Whether the villain who pillaged it +traveled on two legs, or on four, I never knew. Possibly he dropped out +of the air. But I wished him no good, whoever he was. Next year the +birds appeared again, and more than one pair of them; but no nest could +I find, though I often looked for it, and, as children say in their +games, was sometimes very warm. + +Is there any lover of birds in whose mind certain birds and certain +places are not indissolubly joined? Most of us, I am sure, could go over +the list and name the exact spots where we first saw this one, where we +first heard that one sing, and where we found our first nest of the +other. There is a piece of swampy woodland in Jefferson, New Hampshire, +midway between the hotels and the railway station, which, for me, will +always be associated with the song of the winter wren. I had been making +an attempt to explore the wood, with a view to its botanical treasures, +but the mosquitoes had rallied with such spirit that I was glad to beat +a retreat to the road. Just then an unseen bird broke out into a song, +and by the time he had finished I was saying to myself, A winter wren! +Now, if I could only see him in the act, and so be sure of the +correctness of my guess! I worked to that end as cautiously as possible, +but all to no purpose; and finally I started abruptly toward the spot +whence the sound had come, expecting to see the bird fly. But apparently +there was no bird there, and I stood still, in a little perplexity. +Then, all at once, the wren appeared, hopping about among the dead +branches, within a few yards of my feet, and peering at the intruder +with evident curiosity; and the next moment he was joined by a hermit +thrush, equally inquisitive. Both were silent as dead men, but plainly +had no doubt whatever that they were in their own domain, and that it +belonged to the other party to move away. I presumed that the thrush, at +least, had a nest not far off, but after a little search (the mosquitoes +were still active) I concluded not to intrude further on his domestic +privacy. I had heard the wren's famous song, and it had not been +over-praised. But then came the inevitable second thought: had I really +heard it? True, the music possessed the wren characteristics, and a +winter wren was in the brush; but what proof had I that the bird and the +song belonged together? No; I must see him in the act of singing. But +this, I found, was more easily said than done. In Jefferson, in Gorham, +in the Franconia Notch, in short, wherever I went, there was no +difficulty about hearing the music, and little about seeing the wren; +but it was provoking that eye and ear could never be brought to bear +witness to the same bird. However, this difficulty was not insuperable, +and after it was once overcome I was in the habit of witnessing the +whole performance almost as often as I wished. + +Of similar interest to me is a turn in an old Massachusetts road, over +which, boy and man, I have traveled hundreds of times; one of those +delightful back-roads, half road and half lane, where the grass grows +between the horse-track and the wheel-track, while bushes usurp what +ought to be the sidewalk. Here, one morning in the time when every day +was disclosing two or three new species for my delight, I stopped to +listen to some bird of quite unsuspected identity, who was calling and +singing and scolding in the Indian brier thicket, making, in truth, a +prodigious racket. I twisted and turned, and was not a little astonished +when at last I detected the author of all this outcry. From a study of +the manual I set him down as probably the white-eyed vireo,--a +conjecture which further investigation confirmed. This vireo is the very +prince of stump-speakers,--fluent, loud, and sarcastic,--and is well +called the politician, though it is a disappointment to learn that the +title was given him, not for his eloquence, but on account of his habit +of putting pieces of newspaper into his nest. While I stood peering into +the thicket, a man whom I knew came along the road, and caught me thus +disreputably employed. Without doubt he thought me a lazy +good-for-nothing; or possibly (being more charitable) he said to +himself, "Poor fellow! he's losing his mind." + +Take a gun on your shoulder, and go wandering about the woods all day +long, and you will be looked upon with respect, no matter though you +kill nothing bigger than a chipmunk; or stand by the hour at the end of +a fishing-pole, catching nothing but mosquito-bites, and your neighbors +will think no ill of you. But to be seen staring at a bird for five +minutes together, or picking roadside weeds!--well, it is fortunate +there are asylums for the crazy. Not unlikely the malady will grow upon +him; and who knows how soon he may become dangerous? Something must be +wrong about that to which we are unaccustomed. Blowing out the brains +of rabbits and squirrels is an innocent and delightful pastime, as +everybody knows; and the delectable excitement of pulling half-grown +fishes out of the pond to perish miserably on the bank, that, too, is a +recreation easily enough appreciated. But what shall be said of enjoying +birds without killing them, or of taking pleasure in plants, which, so +far as we know, cannot suffer even if we do kill them? + +Of my many pleasant associations of birds with places, one of the +pleasantest is connected with the red-headed woodpecker. This showy bird +has for a good many years been very rare in Massachusetts; and +therefore, when, during the freshness of my ornithological researches, I +went to Washington for a month's visit, it was one of the things which I +had especially in mind, to make his acquaintance. But I looked for him +without success, till, at the end of a fortnight, I made a pilgrimage to +Mount Vernon. Here, after visiting the grave, and going over the house, +as every visitor does, I sauntered about the grounds, thinking of the +great man who used to do the same so many years before, but all the +while keeping my eyes open for the present feathered inhabitants of the +sacred spot. Soon a bird dashed by me, and struck against the trunk of +an adjacent tree, and glancing up quickly, I beheld my much-sought +red-headed woodpecker. How appropriately patriotic he looked, at the +home of Washington, wearing the national colors,--red, white, and blue! +After this he became abundant about the capital, so that I saw him +often, and took much pleasure in his frolicsome ways; and, some years +later, he suddenly appeared in force in the vicinity of Boston, where he +remained through the winter months. To my thought, none the less, he +will always suggest Mount Vernon. Indeed, although he is certainly +rather jovial, and even giddy, he is to me the bird of Washington much +more truly than is the solemn, stupid-seeming eagle, who commonly bears +that name. + +To go away from home, even if the journey be no longer than from +Massachusetts to the District of Columbia, is sure to prove an event of +no small interest to a young naturalist; and this visit of mine to the +national capital was no exception. On the afternoon of my arrival, +walking up Seventh Street, I heard a series of loud, clear, monotonous +whistles, which I had then no leisure to investigate, but the author of +which I promised myself the satisfaction of meeting at another time. In +fact, I think it was at least a fortnight before I learned that these +whistles came from the tufted titmouse. I had been seeing him almost +daily, but till then he had never chanced to use that particular note +while under my eye. + +There was a certain tract of country, woodland and pasture, over which I +roamed a good many times, and which is still clearly mapped out in my +memory. Here I found my first Carolina or mocking wren, who ran in at +one side of a woodpile and came out at the other as I drew near, and +who, a day or two afterwards, sang so loudly from an oak tree that I +ransacked it with my eye in search of some large bird, and was +confounded when finally I discovered who the musician really was. Here, +every day, were to be heard the glorious song of the cardinal grosbeak, +the insect-like effort of the blue-gray gnatcatcher, and the rigmarole +of the yellow-breasted chat. On a wooded hillside, where grew a +profusion of trailing arbutus, pink azalea, and bird-foot violets, the +rowdyish, great-crested flycatchers were screaming in the tree-tops. In +this same grove I twice saw the rare red-bellied woodpecker, who, on +both occasions, after rapping smartly with his beak, turned his head and +laid his ear against the trunk, evidently listening to see whether his +alarm had set any grub a-stirring. Near by, in an undergrowth, I fell in +with a few worm-eating warblers. They seemed of a peculiarly +unsuspicious turn of mind, and certainly wore the quaintest of +head-dresses. I must mention also a scarlet tanager, who, all afire as +he was, one day alighted in a bush of flowering dogwood, which was +completely covered with its large white blossoms. Probably he had no +idea how well his perch became him. + +Perhaps I ought to be ashamed to confess it, but, though I went several +times into the galleries of our honorable Senate and House of +Representatives, and heard speeches by some celebrated men, including at +least half a dozen candidates for the presidency, yet, after all, the +congressmen in feathers interested me most. I thought, indeed, that the +chat might well enough have been elected to the lower house. His +volubility and waggish manners would have made him quite at home in that +assembly, while his orange-colored waistcoat would have given him an +agreeable conspicuity. But, to be sure, he would have needed to learn +the use of tobacco. + +Well, all this was only a few years ago; but the men whose eloquence +then drew the crowd to the capitol are, many of them, heard there no +longer. Some are dead; some have retired to private life. But the birds +never die. Every spring they come trooping back for their all-summer +session. The turkey-buzzard still floats majestically over the city; the +chat still practices his lofty tumbling in the suburban pastures, +snarling and scolding at all comers; the flowing Potomac still yields "a +blameless sport" to the fish-crow and the kingfisher; the orchard oriole +continues to whistle in front of the Agricultural Department, and the +crow blackbird to parade back and forth over the Smithsonian lawns. +Presidents and senators may come and go, be praised and vilified, and +then in turn forgotten; but the birds are subject to no such mutations. +It is a foolish thought, but sometimes their happy carelessness seems +the better part. + + + + + MINOR SONGSTERS. + + The lesser lights, the dearer still + That they elude a vulgar eye. + + BROWNING. + + Listen too, + How every pause is filled with under-notes. + + SHELLEY. + + + MINOR SONGSTERS. + + +Among those of us who are in the habit of attending to bird-songs, there +can hardly be anybody, I think, who has not found himself specially and +permanently attracted by the music of certain birds who have little or +no general reputation. Our favoritism may perhaps be the result of early +associations: we heard the singer first in some uncommonly romantic +spot, or when we were in a mood of unusual sensibility; and, in greater +or less degree, the charm of that hour is always renewed for us with the +repetition of the song. Or if may be (who will assert the contrary?) +that there is some occult relation between the bird's mind and our own. +Or, once more, something may be due to the natural pleasure which +amiable people take (and all lovers of birds may be supposed, _a +priori_, to belong to that class) in paying peculiar honor to merit +which the world at large, less discriminating than they, has thus far +failed to recognize, and in which, therefore, as by "right of +discovery," they have a sort of proprietary interest. This, at least, is +evident: our preference is not determined altogether by the intrinsic +worth of the song; the mind is active, not passive, and gives to the +music something from itself,--"the consecration and the poet's dream." + +Furthermore, it is to be said that a singer--and a bird no less than a +man--may be wanting in that fullness and scope of voice and that large +measure of technical skill which are absolutely essential to the great +artist, properly so called, and yet, within his own limitations, may be +competent to please even the most fastidious ear. It is with birds as +with other poets: the smaller gift need not be the less genuine; and +they whom the world calls greatest, and whom we ourselves most admire, +may possibly not be the ones who touch us most intimately, or to whom we +return oftenest and with most delight. + +This may be well illustrated by a comparison of the chickadee with the +brown thrush. The thrush, or, as he is sometimes profanely styled, the +thrasher, is the most pretentious, perhaps I ought to say the greatest, +of New England songsters, if we rule out the mocking-bird, who is so +very rare with us as scarcely to come into the competition; and still, +in my opinion, his singing seldom produces the effect of really fine +music. With all his ability, which is nothing short of marvelous, his +taste is so deplorably uncertain, and his passion so often becomes a +downright frenzy, that the excited listener, hardly knowing what to +think, laughs and shouts. Bravo! by turns. Something must be amiss, +certainly, when the deepest feelings of the heart are poured forth in a +manner to suggest the performance of a _buffo_. The chickadee, on the +other hand, seldom gets mention as a singer. Probably he never looked +upon himself as such. You will not find him posing at the top of a tree, +challenging the world to listen and admire. But, as he hops from twig to +twig in quest of insects' eggs and other dainties, his merry spirits are +all the time bubbling over in little chirps and twitters, with now and +then a _Chickadee, dee_, or a _Hear, hear me_, every least syllable of +which is like "the very sound of happy thoughts." For my part, I rate +such trifles with the best of all good music, and feel that we cannot be +grateful enough to the brave tit, who furnishes us with them for the +twelve months of every year. + +So far as the chickadee is concerned, I see nothing whatever to wish +different; but am glad to believe that, for my day and long after, he +will remain the same unassuming, careless-hearted creature that he now +is. If I may be allowed the paradox, it would be too bad for him to +change, even for the better. But the bluebird, who like the titmouse is +hardly to be accounted a musician, does seem to be somewhat blameworthy. +Once in a while, it is true, he takes a perch and sings; but for the +most part he is contented with a few simple notes, having no semblance +of a tune. Possibly he holds that his pure contralto voice (I do not +remember ever to have heard from him any note of a soprano, or even of a +mezzo-soprano quality) ought by itself to be a sufficient distinction; +but I think it likelier that his slight attempt at music is only one +manifestation of the habitual reserve which, more than anything else +perhaps, may be said to characterize him. How differently he and the +robin impress us in this particular! Both take up their abode in our +door-yards and orchards; the bluebird goes so far, indeed, as to accept +our hospitality outright, building his nest in boxes put up for his +accommodation, and making the roofs of our houses his favorite perching +stations. But, while the robin is noisily and jauntily familiar, the +bluebird maintains a dignified aloofness; coming and going about the +premises, but keeping his thoughts to himself, and never becoming one of +us save by the mere accident of local proximity. The robin, again, loves +to travel in large flocks, when household duties are over for the +season; but although the same has been reported of the bluebird, I have +never myself seen such a thing, and am satisfied that, as a rule, this +gentle spirit finds a family party of six or seven company enough. His +reticence, as we cheerfully admit, is nothing to quarrel with; it is all +well-bred, and not in the least unkindly; in fact, we like it, on the +whole, rather better than the robin's pertness and garrulity; but, none +the less, its natural consequence is that the bird has small concern for +musical display. When he sings, it is not to gain applause, but to +express his affection; and while, in one aspect of the case, there is +nothing out of the way in this,--since his affection need not be the +less deep and true because it is told in few words and with unadorned +phrase,--yet, as I said to begin with, it is hard not to feel that the +world is being defrauded, when for any reason, however amiable, the +possessor of such a matchless voice has no ambition to make the most of +it. + +It is always a double pleasure to find a plodding, humdrum-seeming man +with a poet's heart in his breast; and a little of the same delighted +surprise is felt by every one, I imagine, when he learns for the first +time that our little brown creeper is a singer. What life could possibly +be more prosaic than his? Day after day, year in and out, he creeps up +one tree-trunk after another, pausing only to peer right and left into +the crevices of the bark, in search of microscopic tidbits. A most +irksome sameness, surely! How the poor fellow must envy the swallows, +who live on the wing, and, as it were, have their home in heaven! So it +is easy for us to think; but I doubt whether the creeper himself is +troubled with such suggestions. He seems, to say the least, as well +contented as the most of us; and, what is more, I am inclined to doubt +whether any except "free moral agents," like ourselves, are ever wicked +enough to find fault with the orderings of Divine Providence. I fancy, +too, that we may have exaggerated the monotony of the creeper's lot. It +can scarcely be that even his days are without their occasional +pleasurable excitements. After a good many trees which yield little or +nothing for his pains, he must now and then light upon one which is like +Canaan after the wilderness,--"a land flowing with milk and honey." +Indeed, the longer I think of it the more confident I feel that every +aged creeper must have had sundry experiences of this sort, which he is +never weary of recounting for the edification of his nephews and nieces, +who, of course, are far too young to have anything like the wide +knowledge of the world which their venerable three-years-old uncle +possesses. _Certhia_ works all day for his daily bread; and yet even of +him it is true that "the life is more than meat." He has his inward +joys, his affectionate delights, which no outward infelicity can touch. +A bird who thinks nothing of staying by his nest and his mate at the +sacrifice of his life is not to be written down a dullard or a drudge, +merely because his dress is plain and his occupation unromantic. He has +a right to sing, for he has something within him to inspire the strain. + +There are descriptions of the creeper's music which liken it to a +wren's. I am sorry that I have myself heard it only on one occasion: +then, however, so far was it from being wren-like that it might rather +have been the work of one of the less proficient warblers,--a somewhat +long opening note followed by a hurried series of shorter ones, the +whole given in a sharp, thin voice, and having nothing to recommend it +to notice, considered simply as music. All the while the bird kept on +industriously with his journey up the tree; and it is not in the least +unlikely that he may have another and better song, which he reserves for +times of more leisure.[19] + +Our American wood-warblers are all to be classed among the minor +songsters; standing in this respect in strong contrast with the true Old +World warblers, of whose musical capacity enough, perhaps, is said when +it is mentioned that the nightingale is one of them. But, comparisons +apart, our birds are by no means to be despised, and not a few of their +songs have a good degree of merit. That of the well-known summer +yellow-bird may be taken as fairly representative of the entire group, +being neither one of the best nor one of the poorest. He, I have +noticed, is given to singing late in the day. Three of the New England +species have at the same time remarkably rough voices and black +throats,--I mean the black-throated blue, the black-throated green, and +the blue golden-wing,--and seeing that the first two are of the genus +_Dendroeca_, while the last is a _Helminthophaga_, I have allowed +myself to query (half in earnest) whether they may not, possibly, be +more nearly related than the systematists have yet discovered. Several +of the warbler songs are extremely odd. The blue yellow-back's, for +example, is a brief, hoarse, upward run,--a kind of scale exercise; and +if the practice of such things be really as beneficial as music teachers +affirm, it would seem that this little beauty must in time become a +vocalist of the first order. Nearly the same might be said of the +prairie warbler; but his _étude_ is a little longer and less hurried, +besides being in a higher key. I do not call to mind any bird who sings +a downward scale. Having before spoken of the tendency of warblers to +learn two or even three set tunes, I was the more interested when, last +summer, I added another to my list of the species which aspire to this +kind of liberal education. It was on the side of Mount Clinton that I +heard two Blackburnians, both in full sight and within a few rods of +each other, who were singing two entirely distinct songs. One of +these--it is the common one, I think--ended quaintly with three or four +short notes, like _zip_, _zip_, _zip;_ while the other was not unlike a +fraction of the winter wren's melody. Those who are familiar with the +latter bird will perhaps recognize the phrase referred to if I call it +the _willie, willie, winkie,_--with a triple accent on the first +syllable of the last word. Most of the songs of this family are rather +slight, but the extremest case known to me is that of the black-poll +(_Dendroeca striata_), whose _zee, zee, zee_ is almost ridiculously +faint. You may hear it continually in the higher spruce forests of the +White Mountains; but you will look a good many times before you discover +its author, and not improbably will begin by taking it for the call of +the kinglet. The music of the bay-breasted warbler is similar to the +black-poll's, but hardly so weak and formless. It seems reasonable to +believe not only that these two species are descended from a common +ancestry, but that the divergence is of a comparatively recent date: +even now the young of the year can be distinguished only with great +difficulty, although the birds in full feather are clearly enough +marked. + +Warblers' songs are often made up of two distinct portions: one given +deliberately, the other hurriedly and with a concluding flourish. +Indeed, the same may be said of bird-songs generally,--those of the song +sparrow, the bay-winged bunting, and the wood thrush being familiar +examples. Yet there are many singers who attempt no climax of this sort, +but make their music to consist of two, or three, or more parts, all +alike. The Maryland yellow-throat, for instance, cries out over and +over, "What a pity, what a pity, what a pity!" So, at least, he seems to +say; though, I confess, it is more than likely I mistake the words, +since the fellow never appears to be feeling badly, but, on the +contrary, delivers his message with an air of cordial satisfaction. The +song of the pine-creeping warbler is after still another fashion,--one +simple short trill. It is musical and sweet; the more so for coming +almost always out of a pine-tree. + +The vireos, or greenlets, are akin to the warblers in appearance and +habits, and like them are peculiar to the western continent. We have no +birds that are more unsparing of their music (prodigality is one of the +American virtues, we are told): they sing from morning till night, +and--some of them, at least--continue thus till the very end of the +season. It is worth mentioning, however, that the red-eye makes a short +day; becoming silent just at the time when the generality of birds grow +most noisy. Probably the same is true of the rest of the family, but on +that point I am not prepared to speak with positiveness. Of the five New +England species (I omit the brotherly-love greenlet, never having been +fortunate enough to know him) the white-eye is decidedly the most +ambitious, the warbling and the solitary are the most pleasing, while +the red-eye and the yellow-throat are very much alike, and both of them +rather too monotonous and persistent. It is hard, sometimes, not to get +out of patience with the red-eye's ceaseless and noisy iteration of his +trite theme; especially if you are doing your utmost to catch the notes +of some rarer and more refined songster. In my note-book I find an entry +describing my vain attempts to enjoy the music of a rose-breasted +grosbeak,--who at that time had never been a common bird with me,--while +"a pesky Wagnerian red-eye kept up an incessant racket." + +The warbling vireo is admirably named; there is no one of our birds that +can more properly be said to warble. He keeps further from the ground +than the others, and shows a strong preference for the elms of village +streets, out of which his delicious music drops upon the ears of all +passers underneath. How many of them hear it and thank the singer is +unhappily another question. + +The solitary vireo may once in a while be heard in a roadside tree, +chanting as familiarly as any red-eye; but he is much less abundant than +the latter, and, as a rule, more retiring. His ordinary song is like the +red-eye's and the yellow-throat's, except that it is pitched somewhat +higher and has a peculiar inflection or cadence, which on sufficient +acquaintance becomes quite unmistakable. This, however, is only the +smallest part of his musical gift. One morning in May, while strolling +through a piece of thick woods, I came upon a bird of this species, who, +all alone like myself, was hopping from one low branch to another, and +every now and then breaking out into a kind of soliloquizing song,--a +musical chatter, shifting suddenly to an intricate, low-voiced warble. +Later in the same day I found another in a chestnut grove. This last was +in a state of quite unwonted fervor, and sang almost continuously; now +in the usual disconnected vireo manner, and now with a chatter and +warble like what I had heard in the morning, but louder and longer. His +best efforts ended abruptly with the ordinary vireo call, and the +instantaneous change of voice gave to the whole a very strange effect. +The chatter and warble appeared to be related to each other precisely as +are those of the ruby-crowned kinglet; while the warble had a certain +tender, affectionate, some would say plaintive quality, which at once +put me in mind of the goldfinch. + +I have seldom been more charmed with the song of any bird than I was on +the 7th of last October with that of this same _Vireo solitarius_. The +morning was bright and warm, but the birds had nearly all taken their +departure, and the few that remained were silent. Suddenly the stillness +was broken by a vireo note, and I said to myself with surprise, A +red-eye? Listening again, however, I detected the solitary's inflection; +and after a few moments the bird, in the most obliging manner, came +directly towards me, and began to warble in the fashion already +described. He sang and sang,--as if his song could have no ending,--and +meanwhile was flitting from tree to tree, intent upon his breakfast. As +far as I could discover, he was without company; and his music, too, +seemed to be nothing more than an unpremeditated, half-unconscious +talking to himself. Wonderfully sweet it was, and full of the happiest +content. "I listened till I had my fill," and returned the favor, as +best I could, by hoping that the little wayfarer's lightsome mood would +not fail him, all the way to Guatemala and back again. + +Exactly a month before this, and not far from the same spot, I had stood +for some minutes to enjoy the "recital" of the solitary's saucy cousin, +the white-eye. Even at that time, although the woods were swarming with +birds,--many of them travelers from the North,--this white-eye was +nearly the only one still in song. He, however, was fairly brimming over +with music; changing his tune again and again, and introducing (for the +first time in Weymouth, as concert programmes say) a notably fine shake. +Like the solitary, he was all the while busily feeding (birds in +general, and vireos in particular, hold with Mrs. Browning that we may +"prove our work the better for the sweetness of our song"), and one +while was exploring a poison-dogwood bush, plainly without the slightest +fear of any ill-result. It occurred to me that possibly it is our +fault, and not that of _Rhus venenata_, when we suffer from the touch of +that graceful shrub. + +The white-eyed greenlet is a vocalist of such extraordinary versatility +and power that one feels almost guilty in speaking of him under the +title which stands at the head of this paper. How he would scold, +out-carlyling Carlyle, if he knew what were going on! Nevertheless I +cannot rank him with the great singers, exceptionally clever and +original as, beyond all dispute, he is; and for that matter, I look upon +the solitary as very much his superior, in spite of--or, shall I say, +because of?--the latter's greater simplicity and reserve. + +But if we hesitate thus about these two inconspicuous vireos, whom half +of those who do them the honor to read what is here said about them will +have never seen, how are we to deal with the scarlet tanager? Our +handsomest bird, and with musical aspirations as well, shall we put him +into the second class? It must be so, I fear: yet such justice is a +trial to the flesh; for what critic could ever quite leave out of +account the beauty of a _prima donna_ in passing judgment on her work? +Does not her angelic face sing to his eye, as Emerson says? + +Formerly I gave the tanager credit for only one song,--the one which +suggests a robin laboring under an attack of hoarseness; but I have +discovered that he himself regards his _chip-cherr_ as of equal value. +At least, I have found him perched at the tip of a tall pine, and +repeating this inconsiderable and not very melodious trochee with all +earnestness and perseverance. Sometimes he rehearses it thus at +nightfall; but even so I cannot call it highly artistic. I am glad to +believe, however, that he does not care in the least for my opinion. Why +should he? He is too true a gallant to mind what anybody else thinks, so +long as _one_ is pleased; and she, no doubt, tells him every day that he +is the best singer in the grove. Beside his divine _chip-cherr_ the +rhapsody of the wood thrush is a mere nothing, if she is to be the +judge. Strange, indeed, that so shabbily dressed a creature as this +thrush should have the presumption to attempt to sing at all! "But +then," she charitably adds, "perhaps he is not to blame; such things +come by nature; and there are some birds, you know, who cannot tell the +difference between noise and music." + +We trust that the tanager will improve as time goes on; but in any case +we are largely in his debt. How we should miss him if he were gone, or +even were become as rare as the summer red-bird and the cardinal are in +our latitude! As it is, he lights up our Northern woods with a truly +tropical splendor, the like of which no other of our birds can furnish. +Let us hold him in hearty esteem, and pray that he may never be +exterminated; no, not even to beautify the head-gear of our ladies, who, +if they only knew it, are already sufficiently bewitching. + +What shall we say now about the lesser lights of that most musical +family, the finches? Of course the cardinal and rose-breasted grosbeaks +are not to be included in any such category. Nor will _I_ put there the +goldfinch, the linnet, the fox-colored sparrow, and the song sparrow. +These, if no more, shall stand among the immortals; so far, at any rate, +as my suffrage counts. But who ever dreamed of calling the chipping +sparrow a fine singer? And yet, who that knows it does not love his +earnest, long-drawn trill, dry and tuneless as it is? I can speak for +one, at all events; and he always has an ear open for it by the middle +of April. It is the voice of a friend,--a friend so true and gentle and +confiding that we do not care to ask whether his voice be smooth and his +speech eloquent. + +The chipper's congener, the field sparrow, is less neighborly than he, +but a much better musician. His song is simplicity itself; yet, even at +its lowest estate, it never fails of being truly melodious, while by +one means and another its wise little author contrives to impart to it a +very considerable variety, albeit within pretty narrow limits. Last +spring the field sparrows were singing constantly from the middle of +April till about the 10th of May, when they became entirely dumb. Then, +after a week in which I heard not a note, they again grew musical. I +pondered not a little over their silence, but concluded that they were +just then very much occupied with preparations for housekeeping. + +The bird who is called indiscriminately the grass finch, the bay-winged +bunting, the bay-winged sparrow, the vesper sparrow, and I know not what +else (the ornithologists have nicknamed him _Pooecetes gramineus_), is +a singer of good parts, but is especially to be commended for his +refinement. In form his music is strikingly like the song sparrow's; but +the voice is not so loud and ringing, and the two or three opening notes +are less sharply emphasized. In general the difference between the two +songs may perhaps be well expressed by saying that the one is more +declamatory, the other more _cantabile_; a difference exactly such as we +might have expected, considering the nervous, impetuous disposition of +the song sparrow and the placidity of the bay-wing. + +As one of his titles indicates, the bay-wing is famous for singing in +the evening, when, of course, his efforts are doubly acceptable; and I +can readily believe that Mr. Minot is correct in his "impression" that +he has once or twice heard the song in the night. For while spending a +few days at a New Hampshire hotel, which was surrounded with fine lawns +such as the grass finch delights in, I happened to be awake in the +morning, long before sunrise,--when, in fact, it seemed like the dead of +night,--and one or two of these sparrows were piping freely. The sweet +and gentle strain had the whole mountain valley to itself. How beautiful +it was, set in such a broad "margin of silence," I must leave to be +imagined. I noticed, moreover, that the birds sang almost incessantly +the whole day through. Much of the time there were two singing +antiphonally. Manifestly, the lines had fallen to them in pleasant +places: at home for the summer in those luxuriant Sugar-Hill fields, in +continual sight of yonder magnificent mountain panorama, with Lafayette +himself looming grandly in the foreground; while they, innocent souls, +had never so much as heard of hotel-keepers and their bills. "Happy +commoners," indeed! Their "songs in the night" seemed nowise surprising. +I fancied that I could be happy myself in such a case. + +Our familiar and ever-welcome snow-bird, known in some quarters as the +black chipping-bird, and often called the black snow-bird, has a long +trill, not altogether unlike the common chipper's, but in a much higher +key. It is a modest lay, yet doubtless full of meaning; for the singer +takes to the very tip of a tree, and throws his head back in the most +approved style. He does his best, at any rate, and so far ranks with the +angels; while, if my testimony can be of any service to him, I am glad +to say ('t is too bad the praise is so equivocal) that I have heard many +human singers who gave me less pleasure; and further, that he took an +indispensable though subordinate part in what was one of the most +memorable concerts at which I was ever happy enough to be a listener. +This was given some years ago in an old apple-orchard by a flock of +fox-colored sparrows, who, perhaps for that occasion only, had the +"valuable assistance" of a large choir of snow-birds. The latter were +twittering in every tree, while to this goodly accompaniment the +sparrows were singing their loud, clear, thrush-like song. The +combination was felicitous in the extreme. I would go a long way to hear +the like again. + +If distinction cannot be attained by one means, who knows but that it +may be by another? It is denied us to be great? Very well, we can at +least try the effect of a little originality. Something like this seems +to be the philosophy of the indigo-bird; and he carries it out both in +dress and in song. As we have said already, it is usual for birds to +reserve the loudest and most taking parts of their music for the close, +though it may be doubted whether they have any intelligent purpose in so +doing. Indeed, the apprehension of a great general truth such as lies at +the basis of this well-nigh universal habit,--the truth, namely, that +everything depends upon the impression finally left on the hearer's +mind; that to end with some grand burst, or with some surprisingly lofty +note, is the only, or to speak cautiously, the principal, requisite to a +really great musical performance,--the intelligent grasp of such a truth +as this, I say, seems to me to lie beyond the measure of a bird's +capacity in the present stage of his development. Be this as it may, +however, it is noteworthy that the indigo-bird exactly reverses the +common plan. He begins at his loudest and sprightliest, and then runs +off into a _diminuendo_, which fades into silence almost imperceptibly. +The strain will never be renowned for its beauty; but it is unique, and, +further, is continued well into August. Moreover,--and this adds grace +to the most ordinary song,--it is often let fall while the bird is on +the wing. + +This eccentric genius has taken possession of a certain hillside +pasture, which, in another way, belongs to me also. Year after year he +comes back and settles down upon it about the middle of May; and I have +often been amused to see his mate--who is not permitted to wear a single +blue feather--drop out of her nest in a barberry bush and go fluttering +off, both wings dragging helplessly through the grass. I should pity her +profoundly but that I am in no doubt her injuries will rapidly heal when +once I am out of sight. Besides, I like to imagine her beatitude, as, +five minutes afterward, she sits again upon the nest, with her heart's +treasures all safe underneath her. Many a time was a boy of my +acquaintance comforted in some ache or pain with the words, "Never mind! +'t will feel better when it gets well;" and so, sure enough, it always +did. But what a wicked world this is, where nature teaches even a bird +to play the deceiver! + +On the same hillside is always to be found the chewink,--a creature +whose dress and song are so unlike those of the rest of his tribe that +the irreverent amateur is tempted to believe that, for once, the men of +science have made a mistake. What has any finch to do with a call like +_cherawink_, or with such a three-colored harlequin suit? But it is +unsafe to judge according to the outward appearance, in ornithology as +in other matters; and I have heard that it is only those who are foolish +as well as ignorant who indulge in off-hand criticisms of wiser men's +conclusions. So let us call the towhee a finch, and say no more about +it. + +But whatever his lineage, it is plain that the chewink is not a bird to +be governed very strictly by the traditions of the fathers. His usual +song is characteristic and pretty, yet he is so far from being satisfied +with it that he varies it continually and in many ways, some of them +sadly puzzling to the student who is set upon telling all the birds by +their voices. I remember well enough the morning I was inveigled through +the wet grass of two pastures--and that just as I was shod for the +city--by a wonderfully foreign note, which filled me with lively +anticipations of a new bird, but which turned out to be the work of a +most innocent-looking towhee. It was perhaps this same bird, or his +brother, whom I one day heard throwing in between his customary +_cherawinks_ a profusion of _staccato_ notes of widely varying pitch, +together with little volleys of tinkling sounds such as his every-day +song concludes with. This medley was not laughable, like the chat's, +which it suggested, but it had the same abrupt, fragmentary, and +promiscuous character. All in all, it was what I never should have +expected from this paragon of self-possession. + +For self-control, as I have elsewhere said, is Pipilo's strong point. +One afternoon last summer a young friend and I found ourselves, as we +suspected, near a chewink's nest, and at once set out to see which of us +should have the honor of the discovery. We searched diligently, but +without avail, while the father-bird sat quietly in a tree, calling with +all sweetness and with never a trace of anger or trepidation, +_cherawink, cherawink_. Finally we gave over the hunt, and I began to +console my companion and myself for our disappointment by shaking in the +face of the bird a small tree which very conveniently leaned toward the +one in which he was perched. By rather vigorous efforts I could make +this pass back and forth within a few inches of his bill; but he utterly +disdained to notice it, and kept on calling as before. While we were +laughing at his impudence (_his_ impudence!) the mother suddenly +appeared, with an insect in her beak, and joined her voice to her +husband's. I was just declaring how cruel as well as useless it was for +us to stay, when she ungratefully gave a ludicrous turn to what was +intended for a very sage and considerate remark, by dropping almost at +my feet, stepping upon the edge of her nest, and offering the morsel to +one of her young. We watched the little tableau admiringly (I had never +seen a prettier show of nonchalance), and thanked our stars that we had +been saved from an involuntary slaughter of the innocents while +trampling all about the spot. The nest, which we had tried so hard to +find, was in plain sight, concealed only by the perfect agreement of its +color with that of the dead pine-branches in the midst of which it was +placed. The shrewd birds had somehow learned--by experience, perhaps, +like ourselves--that those who would escape disagreeable and perilous +conspicuity must conform as closely as possible to the world around +them. + +According to my observation, the towhee is not much given to singing +after July; but he keeps up his call, which is little less musical than +his song, till his departure in late September. At that time of the year +the birds collect together in their favorite haunts; and I remember my +dog's running into the edge of a roadside pasture among some +cedar-trees, when there broke out such a chorus of _cherawinks_ that I +was instantly reminded of a swamp full of frogs in April. + +After the tanager the Baltimore oriole (named for Lord Baltimore, whose +colors he wears) is probably the most gorgeous, as he is certainly one +of the best known, of New England birds. He has discovered that men, +bad as they are, are less to be dreaded than hawks and weasels, and so, +after making sure that his wife is not subject to sea-sickness, he +swings his nest boldly from a swaying shade-tree branch, in full view of +whoever may choose to look at it. Some morning in May--not far from the +10th--you will wake to hear him fifing in the elm before your window. He +has come in the night, and is already making himself at home. Once I saw +a pair who on the very first morning had begun to get together materials +for a nest. His whistle is one of the clearest and loudest, but he makes +little pretensions to music. I have been pleased and interested, +however, to see how tuneful he becomes in August, after most other birds +have ceased to sing, and after a long interval of silence on his own +part. Early and late he pipes and chatters, as if he imagined that the +spring were really coming back again forthwith. What the explanation of +this lyrical revival may be I have never been able to gather; but the +fact itself is very noticeable, so that it would not be amiss to call +the "golden robin" the bird of August. + +The oriole's dusky relatives have the organs of song well developed; and +although most of the species have altogether lost the art of music, +there are none of them, even now, that do not betray more or less of the +musical impulse. The red-winged blackbird, indeed, has some really +praiseworthy notes; and to me--for personal reasons quite aside from any +question about its lyrical value--his rough _cucurree_ is one of the +very pleasantest of sounds. For that matter, however, there is no one of +our birds--be he, in technical language, "oscine" or "non-oscine"--whose +voice is not, in its own way, agreeable. Except a few uncommonly +superstitious people, who does not enjoy the whip-poor-will's +trisyllabic exhortation, and the _yak_ of the night-hawk? Bob White's +weather predictions, also, have a wild charm all their own, albeit his +persistent _No more wet_ is often sadly out of accord with the farmer's +hopes. We have no more untuneful bird, surely, than the cow bunting; yet +even the serenades of this shameless polygamist have one merit,--they +are at least amusing. With what infinite labor he brings forth his +forlorn, broken-winded whistle, while his tail twitches convulsively, as +if tail and larynx were worked by the same spring! + +The judging, comparing spirit, the conscientious dread of being +ignorantly happy when a broader culture would enable us to be +intelligently miserable,--this has its place, unquestionably, in concert +halls; but if we are to make the best use of out-door minstrelsy, we +must learn to take things as we find them, throwing criticism to the +winds. Having said which, I am bound to go further still, and to +acknowledge that on looking back over the first part of this paper I +feel more than half ashamed of the strictures therein passed upon the +bluebird and the brown thrush. When I heard the former's salutation from +a Boston Common elm on the morning, of the 22d of February last, I said +to myself that no music, not even the nightingale's, could ever be +sweeter. Let him keep on, by all means, in his own artless way, paying +no heed to what I have foolishly written about his shortcomings. As for +the thrasher's smile-provoking gutturals, I recall that even in the +symphonies of the greatest of masters there are here and there quaint +bassoon phrases, which have, and doubtless were intended to have, a +somewhat whimsical effect; and remembering this, I am ready to own that +I was less wise than I thought myself when I found so much fault with +the thrush's performance. I have sins enough to answer for: may this +never be added to them, that I set up my taste against that of Beethoven +and _Harporhynchus rufus_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] Since this was written I have heard the creeper sing a tune very +different from the one described above. See p. 227. + + + + + WINTER BIRDS ABOUT BOSTON. + + Not much to find, not much to see; + But the air was fresh, the path was free. + + W. ALLINGHAM. + + + WINTER BIRDS ABOUT BOSTON. + + +A weed has been defined as a plant the use of which is not yet +discovered. If the definition be correct there are few weeds. For the +researches of others beside human investigators must be taken into the +account. What we complacently call the world below us is full of +intelligence. Every animal has a lore of its own; not one of them but +is--what the human scholar is more and more coming to be--a specialist. +In these days the most eminent botanists are not ashamed to compare +notes with the insects, since it turns out that these bits of animate +wisdom long ago anticipated some of the latest improvements of our +modern systematists.[20] We may see the red squirrel eating, with real +epicurean zest, mushrooms, the white and tender flesh of which we have +ourselves looked at longingly, but have never dared to taste. How amused +he would be (I fear he would even be rude enough to snicker) were you to +caution him against poison! As if _Sciurus Hudsonius_ didn't know what +he were about! Why should men be so provincial as to pronounce anything +worthless merely because _they_ can do nothing with it? The clover is +not without value, although the robin and the oriole may agree to think +so. We know better; and so do the rabbits and the humblebees. The wise +respect their own quality wherever they see it, and are thankful for a +good hint from no matter what quarter. Here is a worthy neighbor of mine +whom I hear every summer complaining of the chicory plants which +disfigure the roadside in front of her windows. She wishes they were +exterminated, every one of them. And they are homely, there is no +denying it, for all the beauty of their individual sky-blue flowers. No +wonder a neat housewife finds them an eyesore. But I never pass the spot +in August (I do not pass it at all after that) without seeing that hers +is only one side of the story. My approach is sure to startle a few +goldfinches (and they too are most estimable neighbors), to whom these +scraggy herbs are quite as useful as my excellent lady's apple-trees +and pear-trees are to her. I watch them as they circle about in musical +undulations, and then drop down again to finish their repast; and I +perceive that, in spite of its unsightliness, the chicory is not a +weed,--its use has been discovered. + +In truth, the lover of birds soon ceases to feel the uncomeliness of +plants of this sort; he even begins to have a peculiar and kindly +interest in them. A piece of "waste ground," as it is called, an untidy +garden, a wayside thicket of golden-rods and asters, pig-weed and +evening primrose,--these come to be almost as attractive a sight to him +as a thrifty field of wheat is to an agriculturalist. Taking his cue +from the finches, he separates plants into two grand divisions,--those +that shed their seeds in the fall, and those that hold them through the +winter. The latter, especially if they are of a height to overtop a +heavy snow-fall, are friends in need to his clients; and he is certain +to have marked a few places within the range of his every-day walks +where, thanks to somebody's shiftlessness, perhaps, they have been +allowed to flourish. + +It is not many years since there were several such winter gardens of the +birds in Commonwealth Avenue,--vacant house-lots overgrown with tall +weeds. Hither cause flocks of goldfinches, red-poll linnets, and snow +buntings; and thither I went to watch them. It happened, I remember, +that the last two species, which are not to be met with in this region +every season, were unusually abundant during the first or second year of +my ornithological enthusiasm. Great was the delight with which I added +them to the small but rapidly increasing list of my feathered +acquaintances. + +The red-polls and the goldfinches often travel together, or at least are +often to be found feeding in company; and as they resemble each other a +good deal in size, general appearance, and ways, the casual observer is +very likely not to discriminate between them. Only the summer before the +time of which I speak I had spent a vacation at Mount Wachusett; and a +resident of Princeton, noticing my attention to the birds (a taste so +peculiar is not easily concealed), had one day sought an interview with +me to inquire whether the "yellow-bird" did not remain in Massachusetts +through the winter. I explained that we had two birds which commonly +went by that name and asked whether he meant the one with a black +forehead and black wings and tail. Yes, he said, that was the one. I +assured him, of course, that this bird, the goldfinch, did stay with us +all the year round, and that whoever had informed him to the contrary +must have understood him to be speaking about the golden warbler. He +expressed his gratification, but declared that he had really entertained +no doubt of the fact himself; he had often seen the birds on the +mountain when he had been cutting wood there in midwinter. At such +times, he added, they were very tame, and would come about his feet to +pick up crumbs while he was eating his dinner. Then he went on to tell +me that at that season of the year their plumage took on more or less of +a reddish tinge: he had seen in the same flock some with no trace of +red, others that were slightly touched with it, and others still of a +really bright color. At this I had nothing to say, save that his red +birds, whatever else they were, could not have been goldfinches. But +next winter, when I saw the "yellow-birds" and the red-poll linnets +feeding together in Commonwealth Avenue, I thought at once of my +Wachusett friend. Here was the very scene he had so faithfully +described,--some of the flock with no red at all, some with red crowns, +and a few with bright carmine crowns and breasts. They remained all +winter, and no doubt thought the farmers of Boston a very good and wise +set, to cultivate the evening primrose so extensively. This plant, like +the succory, is of an ungraceful aspect; yet it has sweet and beautiful +blossoms, and as an herb bearing seed is in the front rank. I doubt +whether we have any that surpass it, the birds being judges. + +Many stories are told of the red-polls' fearlessness and ready +reconciliation to captivity, as well as of their constancy to each +other. I have myself stood still in the midst of a flock, until they +were feeding round my feet so closely that it looked easy enough to +catch one or two of them with a butterfly net. Strange that creatures so +gentle and seemingly so delicately organized should choose to live in +the regions about the North Pole! Why should they prefer Labrador and +Greenland, Iceland and Spitzbergen, to more southern countries? Why? +Well, possibly for no worse a reason than this, that these are the lands +of their fathers. Other birds, it may be, have grown discouraged, and +one after another ceased to come back to their native shores as the +rigors of the climate have increased; but these little patriots are +still faithful. Spitzbergen is home, and every spring they make the long +and dangerous passage to it. All praise to them! + +If any be ready to call this an over-refinement, deeming it incredible +that beings so small and lowly should come so near to human sentiment +and virtue, let such not be too hasty with their dissent. Surely they +may in reason wait till they can point to at least one country where the +men are as universally faithful to their wives and children as the birds +are to theirs. + +The red-poll linnets, as I have said, are irregular visitors in this +region; several years may pass, and not one be seen; but the goldfinch +we have with us always. Easily recognized as he is, there are many +well-educated New-Englanders, I fear, who do not know him, even by +sight; yet when that distinguished ornithologist, the Duke of Argyll, +comes to publish his impressions of this country, he avers that he has +been hardly more interested in the "glories of Niagara" than in this +same little yellow-bird, which he saw for the first time while looking +from his hotel window at the great cataract. "A golden finch, indeed!" +he exclaims. Such a tribute as this from the pen of a British nobleman +ought to give _Astragalinus tristis_ immediate entrance into the very +best of American society. + +It is common to say that the goldfinches wander about the country during +the winter. Undoubtedly this is true in a measure; but I have seen +things which lead me to suspect that the statement is sometimes made too +sweeping. Last winter, for example, a flock took up their quarters in a +certain neglected piece of ground on the side of Beacon Street, close +upon the boundary between Boston and Brookline, and remained there +nearly or quite the whole season. Week after week I saw them in the same +place, accompanied always by half a dozen tree sparrows. They had found +a spot to their mind, with plenty of succory and evening primrose, and +were wise enough not to forsake it for any uncertainty. + +The goldfinch loses his bright feathers and canary-like song as the cold +season approaches, but not even a New England winter can rob him of his +sweet call and his cheerful spirits; and for one, I think him never more +winsome than when he bangs in graceful attitudes above a snow-bank, on a +bleak January morning. + +Glad as we are of the society of the goldfinches and the red-polls at +this time of the year, we cannot easily rid ourselves of a degree of +solicitude for their comfort; especially if we chance to come upon them +after sunset on some bitterly cold day, and mark with what a nervous +haste they snatch here and there a seed, making the utmost of the few +remaining minutes of twilight. They will go to bed hungry and cold, we +think, and were surely better off in a milder clime. But, if I am to +judge from my own experience, the snow buntings awaken no such +emotions. Arctic explorers by instinct, they come to us only with real +arctic weather, and almost seem to be themselves a part of the +snow-storm with which they arrive. No matter what they are doing: +running along the street before an approaching sleigh; standing on a +wayside fence; jumping up from the ground to snatch the stem of a weed, +and then setting at work hurriedly to gather the seeds they have shaken +down; or, best of all, skimming over the snow in close order, their +white breasts catching the sun as they veer this way or that,--whatever +they may be doing, they are the most picturesque of all our cold-weather +birds. In point of suspiciousness their behavior is very different at +different times, as, for that matter, is true of birds generally. Seeing +the flock alight in a low roadside lot, you steal silently to the edge +of the sidewalk to look over upon them. There they are, sure enough, +walking and running about, only a few rods distant. What lovely +creatures, and how prettily they walk! But just as you are wishing, +perhaps, that they were a little nearer, they begin to fly from right +under your feet. You search the ground eagerly, right and left, but not +a bird can you discover; and still they continue to start up, now here, +now there, till you are ready to question whether, indeed, "eyes were +made for seeing." The "snow-flakes" wear protective colors, and, like +most other animals, are of opinion that, for such as lack the receipt of +fern-seed, there is often nothing safer than to sit still. The worse the +weather, the less timorous they are, for with them, as with wiser heads, +one thought drives out another; and it is nothing uncommon, when times +are hard, to see them stay quietly upon the fence while a sleigh goes +past, or suffer a foot passenger to come again and again within a few +yards. + +It gives a lively touch to the imagination to overtake these beautiful +strangers in the middle of Beacon Street; particularly if one has lately +been reading about them in some narrative of Siberian travel. Coming +from so far, associating in flocks, with costumes so becoming and yet so +unusual, they might be expected to attract universal notice, and +possibly to get into the newspapers. But there is a fashion even about +seeing; and of a thousand persons who may take a Sunday promenade over +the Mill-dam, while these tourists from the North Pole are there, it is +doubtful whether a dozen are aware of their presence. Birds feeding in +the street? Yes, yes; English sparrows, of course; we haven't any other +birds in Boston nowadays, you know. + +With the pine grosbeaks the case is different. When a man sees a company +of rather large birds about the evergreens in his door-yard, most of +them of a neutral ashy-gray tint, but one or two in suits of rose-color, +he is pretty certain to feel at least a momentary curiosity about them. +Their slight advantage in size counts for something; for, without +controversy, the bigger the bird the more worthy he is of notice. And +then the bright color! The very best men are as yet but imperfectly +civilized, and there must be comparatively few, even of Bostonians, in +whom there is not some lingering susceptibility to the fascination of +red feathers. Add to these things the fact that the grosbeaks are +extremely confiding, and much more likely than the buntings to be seen +from the windows of the house, and you have, perhaps, a sufficient +explanation of the more general interest they excite. Like the snow +buntings and the red-polls, they roam over the higher latitudes of +Europe, Asia, and America, and make only irregular visits to our corner +of the world.[21] + +I cannot boast of any intimate acquaintance with them. I have never +caught them in a net, or knocked them over with a club, as other +persons have done, although I have seen them when their tameness +promised success to any such loving experiment. Indeed, it was several +years before my lookout for them was rewarded. Then, one day, I saw a +flock of about ten fly across Beacon Street,--on the edge of +Brookline,--and alight in an apple-tree; at which I forthwith clambered +over the picket-fence after them, heedless alike of the deep snow and +the surprise of any steady-going citizen who might chance to witness my +high-handed proceeding. Some of the birds were feeding upon the rotten +apples; picking them off the tree, and taking them to one of the large +main branches or to the ground, and there tearing them to pieces,--for +the sake of the seeds, I suppose. The rest sat still, doing nothing. I +was most impressed with the exceeding mildness and placidity of their +demeanor; as if they had time enough, plenty to eat, and nothing to +fear. Their only notes were in quality much like the goldfinch's, and +hardly louder, but without his characteristic inflection. I left the +whole company seated idly in a maple-tree, where, to all appearance, +they proposed to observe the remainder of the day as a Sabbath. + +Last winter the grosbeaks were uncommonly abundant. I found a number of +them within a few rods of the place just mentioned; this time in +evergreen trees, and so near the road that I had no call to commit +trespass. Evergreens are their usual resort,--so, at least, I gather +from books,--but I have seen them picking up provender from a +bare-looking last year's garden. Natives of the inhospitable North, they +have learned by long experience how to adapt themselves to +circumstances. If one resource fails, there is always another to be +tried. Let us hope that they even know how to show fight upon, occasion. + +The purple finch--a small copy of the pine grosbeak, as the indigo bird +is of the blue grosbeak--is a summer rather than a winter bird with us; +yet he sometimes passes the cold season in Eastern Massachusetts, and +even in Northern New Hampshire. I have never heard him sing more +gloriously than once when the ground was deep under the snow; a +wonderfully sweet and protracted warble, poured out while the singer +circled about in the air with a kind of half-hovering flight. + +As I was walking briskly along a West End street, one cold morning in +March, I heard a bird's note close at hand, and, looking down, +discovered a pair of these finches in a front yard. The male, in bright +plumage, was flitting about his mate, calling anxiously, while she, poor +thing, sat motionless upon the snow, too sick or too badly exhausted to +fly. I stroked her feathers gently while she perched on my finger, and +then resumed my walk; first putting her into a little more sheltered +position on the sill of a cellar window, and promising to call on my way +back, when, if she were no better, I would take her home with me, and +give her a warm room and good nursing. When I returned, however, she was +nowhere to be found. Her mate, I regret to say, both on his own account +and for the sake of the story, had taken wing and disappeared the moment +I entered the yard. Possibly he came back and encouraged her to fly off +with him; or perhaps some cat made a Sunday breakfast of her. The truth +will never be known; our vigilant city police take no cognizance of +tragedies so humble. + +For several years a few song sparrows--a pair or two, at least--have +wintered in a piece of ground just beyond the junction of Beacon street +and Brookline Avenue. I have grown accustomed to listen for their +_tseep_ as I go by the spot, and occasionally I catch sight of one of +them perched upon a weed, or diving under the plank sidewalk. It would +be a pleasure to know the history of the colony: how it started; whether +the birds are the same year after year, as I suppose to be the case; and +why this particular site was selected. The lot is small, with no woods +or bushy thicket near, while it has buildings in one corner, and is +bounded on its three sides by the streets and the railway; but it is +full of a rank growth of weeds, especially a sturdy species of aster and +the evergreen golden-rod, and I suspect that the plank walk, which on +one side is raised some distance from the ground, is found serviceable +for shelter in severe weather, as it is certainly made to take the place +of shrubbery for purposes of concealment. + +Fortunately, birds, even those of the same species, are not all exactly +alike in their tastes and manner of life. So, while by far the greater +part of our song sparrows leave us in the fall, there are always some +who prefer to stay. They have strong local attachments, perhaps; or they +dread the fatigue and peril of the journey; or they were once +incapacitated for flight when their companions went away, and, having +found a Northern winter not so unendurable as they had expected, have +since done from choice what at first they did of necessity. Whatever +their reasons,--and we cannot be presumed to have guessed half of +them,--at all events a goodly number of song sparrows do winter in +Massachusetts, where they open the musical season before the first of +the migrants make their appearance. I doubt, however, whether many of +them choose camping grounds so exposed and public as this in the rear +of the "Half-way House." + +Our only cold-weather thrushes are the robins. They may be found any +time in favorable situations; and even in so bleak a place as Boston +Common I have seen them in every month of the year except February. This +exception, moreover, is more apparent than real,--at the most a matter +of but twenty-four hours, since I once saw four birds in a tree near the +Frog Pond on the last day of January. The house sparrows were as much +surprised as I was at the sight, and, with characteristic urbanity, +gathered from far and near to sit in the same tree with the visitors, +and stare at them. + +We cannot help being grateful to the robins and the song sparrows, who +give us their society at so great a cost; but their presence can +scarcely be thought to enliven the season. At its best their bearing is +only that of patient submission to the inevitable. They remind us of the +summer gone and the summer coming, rather than brighten the winter that +is now upon us; like friends who commiserate us in some affliction, but +are not able to comfort us. How different the chickadee! In the worst +weather his greeting is never of condolence, but of good cheer. He has +no theory upon the subject, probably; he is no Shepherd of Salisbury +Plain; but he knows better than to waste the exhilarating air of this +wild and frosty day in reminiscences of summer time. It is a +pretty-sounding couplet,-- + + "Thou hast no morrow in thy song, + No winter in thy year,"-- + +but rather incongruous, he would think. _Chickadee, dee_, he +calls,--_chickadee, dee_; and though the words have no exact equivalent +in English, their meaning is felt by all such as are worthy to hear +them. + +Are the smallest birds really the most courageous, or does an +unconscious sympathy on our part inevitably give them odds in the +comparison? Probably the latter supposition comes nearest the truth. +When a sparrow chases a butcher-bird we cheer the sparrow, and then when +a humming-bird puts to flight a sparrow, we cheer the humming-bird; we +side with the kingbird against the crow, and with the vireo, against the +kingbird. It is a noble trait of human nature--though we are somewhat +too ready to boast of it--that we like, as we say, to see the little +fellow at the top. These remarks are made, not with any reference to the +chickadee,--I admit no possibility of exaggeration in his case,--but as +leading to a mention of the golden-crested kinglet. He is the least of +all our winter birds, and one of the most engaging. Emerson's "atom in +full breath" and "scrap of valor" would apply to him even better than to +the titmouse. He says little,--_zee, zee, zee_ is nearly the limit of +his vocabulary; but his lively demeanor and the grace and agility of his +movements are in themselves an excellent language, speaking infallibly a +contented mind. (It is a fact, on which I forbear to moralize, that +birds seldom look unhappy except when they are idle.) His diminutive +size attracts attention even from those who rarely notice such things. +About the first of December, a year ago, I was told of a man who had +shot a humming-bird only a few days before in the vicinity of Boston. Of +course I expressed a polite surprise, and assured my informant that such +a remarkable capture ought by all means to be put on record in "The +Auk," as every ornithologist in the land would be interested in it. On +this he called upon the lucky sportsman's brother, who happened to be +standing by, to corroborate the story. Yes, the latter said, the fact +was as had been stated. "But then," he continued, "the bird didn't have +a _long bill_, like a humming-bird;" and when I suggested that perhaps +its crown was yellow, bordered with black, he said, "Yes, yes; that's +the bird, exactly." So easy are startling discoveries to an observer who +has just the requisite amount of knowledge,--enough, and (especially) +not too much! + +The brown creeper is quite as industrious and good-humored as the +kinglet, but he is less taking in his personal appearance and less +romantic in his mode of life. The same may be said of our two +black-and-white woodpeckers, the downy and the hairy; while their more +showy but less hardy relative, the flicker, evidently feels the weather +a burden. The creeper and these three woodpeckers are with us in limited +numbers every winter; and in the season of 1881-82 we had an altogether +unexpected visit from the red-headed woodpecker,--such a thing as had +not been known for a long time, if ever. Where the birds came from, and +what was the occasion of their journey, nobody could tell. They arrived +early in the autumn, and went away, with the exception of a few +stragglers, in the spring; and as far as I know have never been seen +since. It is a great pity they did not like us well enough to come +again; for they are wide-awake, entertaining creatures, and gorgeously +attired. I used to watch them in the oak groves of some Longwood +estates, but it was not till our second or third interview that I +discovered them to be the authors of a mystery over which I had been +exercising my wits in vain, a tree-frog's note in winter! One of their +amusements was to drum on the tin girdles of the shade trees; and +meanwhile they themselves afforded a pastime to the gray squirrels, who +were often to be seen creeping stealthily after them, as if they +imagined that _Melanerpes erythrocephalus_ might possibly be caught, if +only he were hunted long enough. I laughed at them; but, after all, +their amusing hallucination was nothing but the sportsman's instinct; +and life would soon lose its charm for most of us, sportsmen or not, if +we could no longer pursue the unattainable. + +Probably my experience is not singular, but there are certain birds, +well known to be more or less abundant in this neighborhood, which for +some reason or other I have seldom, if ever, met. For example, of the +multitude of pine finches which now and then overrun Eastern +Massachusetts in winter I have never seen one, while on the other hand I +was once lucky enough to come upon a few of the very much smaller number +which pass the summer in Northern New Hampshire. This was in the White +Mountain Notch, first on Mount Willard and then near the Crawford House, +at which latter place they were feeding on the lawn and along the +railway track as familiarly as the goldfinches. + +The shore larks, too, are no doubt common near Boston for a part of +every year; yet I found half a dozen five or six years ago in the marsh +beside a Back Bay street, and have seen none since. One of these stood +upon a pile of earth, singing to himself in an undertone, while the rest +were feeding in the grass. Whether the singer was playing sentinel, and +sounded an alarm, I was not sure, but all at once the flock started off, +as if on a single pair of wings. + +Birds which elude the observer in this manner year after year only +render themselves all the more interesting. They are like other species +with which we deem ourselves well acquainted, but which suddenly appear +in some quite unlooked-for time or place. The long-expected and the +unexpected have both an especial charm. I have elsewhere avowed my +favoritism for the white-throated sparrow; but I was never more +delighted to see him than on one Christmas afternoon. I was walking in a +back road, not far from the city, when I descried a sparrow ahead of me, +feeding in the path, and, coming nearer, recognized my friend the +white-throat. He held his ground till the last moment (time was precious +to him that short day), and then flew into a bush to let me pass, which +I had no sooner done than he was back again; and on my return the same +thing was repeated. Far and near the ground was white, but just at this +place the snow-plough had scraped bare a few square feet of earth, and +by great good fortune this solitary and hungry straggler had hit upon +it. I wondered what he would do when the resources of this garden patch +were exhausted, but consoled myself with thinking that by this time he +must be well used to living by his wits, and would probably find a way +to do so even in his present untoward circumstances. + +The snow-birds (not to be confounded with the snow buntings) should have +at least a mention in such a paper as this. They are among the most +familiar and constant of our winter guests, although very much less +numerous at that time than in spring and autumn, when the fields and +lanes are fairly alive with them. + +A kind word must be said for the shrike, also, who during the three +coldest months is to be seen on the Common oftener than any other of our +native birds. _There_, at all events, he is doing a good work. May he +live to finish it! + +The blue jay stands by us, of course. You will not go far without +hearing his scream, and catching at least a distant view of his splendid +coat, which he is too consistent a dandy to put off for one of a duller +shade, let the season shift as it will. He is not always good-natured; +but none the less he is generally in good spirits (he seems to enjoy +his bad temper), and, all in all, is not to be lightly esteemed in a +time when bright feathers are scarce. + +As for the jay's sable relatives, they are the most conspicuous birds in +the winter landscape. You may possibly walk to Brookline and back +without hearing a chickadee, or a blue jay, or even a goldfinch; but you +will never miss sight and sound of the crows. Black against white is a +contrast hard to be concealed. Sometimes they are feeding in the street, +sometimes stalking about the marshes; but oftenest they are on the ice +in the river, near the water's edge. For they know the use of friends, +although they have never heard of Lord Bacon's "last fruit of +friendship," and would hardly understand what that provident philosopher +meant by saying that "the best way to represent to life the manifold use +of friendship is to cast and see how many things there are which a man +cannot do himself." How aptly their case illustrates the not unusual +coexistence of formal ignorance with real knowledge! Having their +Southern brother's fondness for fish without his skill in catching it, +they adopt a plan worthy of the great essayist himself,--they court the +society of the gulls; and with a temper eminently philosophical, not to +say Baconian, they cheerfully sit at their patrons' second table. From +the Common you may see them almost any day (in some seasons, at least) +flying back and forth between the river and the harbor. One morning in +early March I witnessed quite a procession, one small company after +another, the largest numbering eleven birds, though it was nothing to +compare with what seems to be a daily occurrence at some places further +south. At another time, in the middle of January, I saw what appeared to +be a flock of herring gulls sailing over the city, making progress in +their own wonderfully beautiful manner, circle after circle. But I +noticed that about a dozen of them were black! What were these? If they +could have held their peace I might have gone home puzzled; but the crow +is in one respect a very polite bird: he will seldom fly over your head +without letting fall the compliments of the morning, and a vigorous +_caw, caw_ soon proclaimed my black gulls to be simply erratic specimens +of _Corvus Americanus_. Why were they conducting thus strangely? Had +they become so attached to their friends as to have taken to imitating +them unconsciously? Or were they practicing upon the vanity of these +useful allies of theirs, these master fishermen? Who can answer? The +ways of shrewd people are hard to understand; and in all New England +there is no shrewder Yankee than the crow. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] See a letter by Dr. Fritz Müller, "Butterflies as Botanists:" +_Nature_, vol. xxx. p. 240. Of similar import is the case, cited by Dr. +Asa Gray (in the _American Journal of Science_, November, 1884, p. 325), +of two species of plantain found in this country, which students have +only of late discriminated, although it turns out that the cows have all +along known them apart, eating one and declining the other,--the bovine +taste being more exact, it would seem, or at any rate more prompt, than +the botanist's lens. + +[21] Unlike the snow bunting and the red-poll, however, the pine +grosbeak is believed to breed sparingly in Northern New England. + + + + + A BIRD-LOVER'S APRIL + + There shall be + Beautiful things made new, for the surprise + Of the sky-children. + + KEATS. + + Everywhere the blue sky belongs to them, and is their appointed + rest, and their native country and their own natural homes, which + they enter unannounced, as lords that are certainly expected, and + yet these is a silent joy at their arrival. + + COLERIDGE. + + + A BIRD-LOVER'S APRIL. + + +It began on the 29th of March; in the afternoon of which day, despite +the authority of the almanac and the banter of my acquaintances (March +was March to them, and it was nothing more), I shook off the city's dust +from my feet, and went into summer quarters. The roads were +comparatively dry; the snow was entirely gone, except a patch or two in +the shadow of thick pines under the northerly side of a hill; and all +tokens seemed to promise an early spring. So much I learned before the +hastening twilight cut short my first brief turn out-of-doors. In the +morning would be time enough to discover what birds had already reported +themselves at my station. + +Unknown to me, however, our national weather bureau had announced a +snow-storm, and in the morning I drew aside the curtains to look out +upon a world all in white, with a cold, high wind blowing and snow +falling fast. "The worst Sunday of the winter," the natives said. The +"summer boarder" went to church, of course. To have done otherwise might +have been taken for a confession of weakness; as if inclemency of this +sort were more than he had bargained for. The villagers, lacking any +such spur to right conduct, for the most part stayed at home; feeling it +not unpleasant, I dare say, some of them, to have a natural inclination +providentially confirmed, even at the cost of an hour's exercise with +the shovel. The bravest parishioner of all, and the sweetest +singer,--the song sparrow by name,--was not in the meeting-house, but by +the roadside. What if the wind did blow, and the mercury stand at +fifteen or twenty degrees below the freezing point? In cold as in heat +"the mind is its own place." + +Three days after this came a second storm, one of the heaviest +snow-falls of the year. The robins were reduced to picking up seeds in +the asparagus bed. The bluebirds appeared to be trying to glean +something from the bark of trees, clinging rather awkwardly to the trunk +meanwhile. (They are given to this, more or less, at all times, and it +possibly has some connection with their half-woodpeckerish habit of +nestling in holes.) Some of the snow-birds were doing likewise; I +noticed one traveling up a trunk,--which inclined a good deal, to be +sure,--exploring the crannies right and left, like any creeper. Half a +dozen or more phoebes were in the edge of a wood; and they too seemed +to have found out that, if worst came to worst, the tree-boles would +yield a pittance for their relief. They often hovered against them, +pecking hastily at the bark, and one at least was struggling for a +foothold on the perpendicular surface. Most of the time, however, they +went skimming over the snow and the brook, in the regular flycatcher +style. The chickadees were put to little or no inconvenience, since what +was a desperate makeshift to the others was to them only an every-day +affair. It would take a long storm to bury their granary.[22] After the +titmice, the fox-colored sparrows had perhaps the best of it. Looking +out places where the snow had collected least, at the foot of a tree or +on the edge of water, these adepts at scratching speedily turned up +earth enough to checker the white with very considerable patches of +brown. While walking I continually disturbed song sparrows, fox +sparrows, tree sparrows, and snow-birds feeding in the road; and when I +sat in my room I was advised of the approach of carriages by seeing +these "pensioners upon the traveler's track" scurry past the window in +advance of them. + +It is pleasant to observe how naturally birds flock together in hard +times,--precisely as men do, and doubtless for similar reasons. The edge +of the wood, just mentioned, was populous with them: robins, bluebirds, +chickadees, fox sparrows, snow-birds, song sparrows, tree sparrows, +phoebes, a golden-winged woodpecker, and a rusty blackbird. The last, +noticeable for his conspicuous light-colored eye-ring, had somehow +become separated from his fellows, and remained for several days about +this spot entirely alone. I liked to watch his aquatic performances; +they might almost have been those of the American dipper himself, I +thought. He made nothing of putting his head and neck clean under water, +like a duck, and sometimes waded the brook when the current was so +strong that he was compelled every now and then to stop and brace +himself against it, lest he should be carried off his feet. + +It is clear that birds, sharing the frailty of some who are better than +many sparrows, are often wanting in patience. As spring draws near they +cannot wait for its coming. What it has been the fashion to call their +unerring instinct is after all infallible only as a certain great public +functionary is,--in theory; and their mistaken haste is too frequently +nothing but a hurrying to their death. But I saw no evidence that this +particular storm was attended with any fatal consequences. The snow +completely disappeared within a day or two; and even while it lasted the +song sparrows, fox sparrows, and linnets could be heard singing with all +cheerfulness. On the coldest day, when the mercury settled to within +twelve degrees of zero, I observed that the song sparrows, as they fed +in the road, had a trick of crouching till their feathers all but +touched the ground, so protecting their legs against the biting wind. + +The first indications of mating were noticed on the 5th, the parties +being two pairs of bluebirds. One of the females was rebuffing her +suitor rather petulantly, but when he flew away she lost no time in +following. Shall I be accused of slander if I suggest that possibly her +_No_ meant nothing worse than _Ask me again?_ I trust not; she was only +a bluebird, remember. Three days later I came upon two couples engaged +in house-hunting. In this business the female takes the lead, with a +silent, abstracted air, as if the matter were one of absorbing interest; +while her mate follows her about somewhat impatiently, and with a good +deal of talk, which is plainly intended to hasten the decision. "Come, +come," he says; "the season is short, and we can't waste the whole of +it in getting ready." I never could discover that his eloquence produced +much effect, however. Her ladyship will have her own way; as indeed she +ought to have, good soul, considering that she is to have the discomfort +and the hazard. In one case I was puzzled by the fact that there seemed +to be two females to one of the opposite sex. It really looked as if the +fellow proposed to set up housekeeping with whichever should first find +a house to her mind. But this _is_ slander, and I hasten to take it +back. No doubt I misinterpreted his behavior; for it is true--with +sorrow I confess it--that I am as yet but imperfectly at home in the +Sialian dialect. + +For the first fortnight my note-book is full of the fox-colored +sparrows. It was worth while to have come into the country ahead of +time, as city people reckon, to get my fill of this Northern songster's +music. Morning and night, wherever I walked, and even if I remained +in-doors, I was certain to hear the loud and beautiful strain; to which +I listened with the more attention because the birds, I knew, would soon +be off for their native fields, beyond the boundaries of the United +States. + +It is astonishing how gloriously birds may sing, and yet pass +unregarded. We read of nightingales and skylarks with a self-satisfied +thrill of second-hand enthusiasm, and meanwhile our native songsters, +even the best of them, are piping unheeded at our very doors. There may +have been half a dozen of the town's people who noticed the presence of +these fox sparrows, but I think it doubtful; and yet the birds, the +largest, handsomest, and most musical of all our many sparrows, were, as +I say, abundant everywhere, and in full voice. + +One afternoon I stood still while a fox sparrow and a song sparrow sang +alternately on either side of me, both exceptionally good vocalists, and +each doing his best. The songs were of about equal length, and as far as +theme was concerned were not a little alike; but the fox sparrow's tone +was both louder and more mellow than the other's, while his notes were +longer,--more sustained,--and his voice was "carried" from one pitch to +another. On the whole, I had no hesitation about giving him the palm; +but I am bound to say that his rival was a worthy competitor. In some +respects, indeed, the latter was the more interesting singer of the two. +His opening measure of three _pips_ was succeeded by a trill of quite +peculiar brilliancy and perfection; and when the other bird had ceased +he suddenly took a lower perch, and began to rehearse an altogether +different tune in a voice not more than half as loud as what he had +been using; after which, as if to cap the climax, he several times +followed the tune with a detached phrase or two in a still fainter +voice. This last was pretty certainly an improvised cadenza, such a +thing as I do not remember ever to have heard before from _Melospiza +melodia_. + +The song of the fox sparrow has at times an almost thrush-like quality; +and the bird himself, as he flies up in front of you, might easily be +mistaken for some member of that noble family. Once, indeed, when I saw +him eating burning-bush berries in a Boston garden, I was half ready to +believe that I had before my eyes a living example of the development of +one species out of another,--a finch already well on his way to become a +thrush. Most often, however, his voice puts me in mind of the cardinal +grosbeak's; his voice, and perhaps still more his cadence, and +especially his practice of the _portamento_. + +The 11th of the month was sunny, and the next morning I came back from +my accustomed rounds under a sense of bereavement: the fox sparrows were +gone. Where yesterday there had been hundreds of them, now I could find +only two silent stragglers. They had been well scattered over the +township,--here a flock and there a flock; but in some way--I should be +glad to have anybody tell me how--the word had passed from company to +company that after sundown Friday night all hands would set out once +more on their northward journey. There was one man, at least, who missed +them, and in the comparative silence which followed their departure +appreciated anew how much they had contributed to fill the wet and +chilly April mornings with melody and good cheer. + +The snow-birds tarried longer, but from this date became less and less +abundant. For the first third of the month they had been as numerous, I +calculated, as all other species put together. On one occasion I saw a +large company of them chasing an albino, the latter dashing wildly round +a pine-tree, with the whole flock in furious pursuit. They drove him +off, across an impassable morass, before I could get close enough really +to see him, but I presumed him to be of their own kind. As far as I +could make out he was entirely white. For the moment it lasted, it was +an exciting scene; and I was especially gratified to notice with what +extreme heartiness and unanimity the birds discountenanced their wayward +brother's heterodoxy. I agreed with them that one who cannot be content +to dress like other people ought not to be allowed to live with them. +The world is large,--let him go to Rhode Island! + +On the evening of the 6th, just at dusk, I had started up the road for a +lazy after-dinner saunter, when I was brought to a sudden halt by what +on the instant I took for the cry of a night-hawk. But no night-hawk +could be here thus early in the season, and listening further, I +perceived that the bird, if bird it was, was on the ground, or, at any +rate, not far from it. Then it flashed upon me that this was the note of +the woodcock, which I had that very day startled upon this same +hillside. Now, then, for another sight of his famous aerial courtship +act! So, scrambling down the embankment, and clambering over the +stone-wall, I pushed up the hill through bushes and briers, till, having +come as near the bird as I dared, I crouched, and awaited further +developments. I had not long to wait, for after a few _yaks_, at +intervals of perhaps fifteen or twenty seconds, the fellow took to wing, +and went soaring in a circle above me; calling hurriedly _click, click, +click_, with a break now and then, as if for breath-taking. All this he +repeated several times; but unfortunately it was too dark for me to see +him, except as he crossed a narrow illuminated strip of sky just above +the horizon line. I judged that he mounted to a very considerable +height, and dropped invariably into the exact spot from which he had +started. For a week or two I listened every night for a repetition of +the yak; but I heard nothing more of it for a month. Then it came to my +ears again, this time from a field between the road and a swamp. +Watching my opportunity, while the bird was in the air, I hastened +across the field, and stationed myself against a small cedar. He was +still _clicking_ high overhead, but soon alighted silently within twenty +yards of where I was standing, and commenced to "bleat," prefacing each +_yak_ with a fainter syllable which I had never before been near enough +to detect. Presently he started once more on his skyward journey. Up he +went, in a large spiral, "higher still and higher" till the cedar cut +off my view for an instant, after which I could not again get my eye +upon him. Whether he saw me or not I cannot tell, but he dropped to the +ground some rods away, and did not make another ascension, although he +continued to call irregularly, and appeared to be walking about the +field. Perhaps by this time the fair one for whose benefit all this +parade was intended had come out of the swamp to meet and reward her +admirer. + +Hoping for a repetition of the same programme on the following night, I +invited a friend from the city to witness it with me; one who, less +fortunate than the "forest seer," had never "heard the woodcock's +evening hymn," notwithstanding his knowledge of birds is a thousand-fold +more than mine, as all students of American ornithology would +unhesitatingly avouch were I to mention his name. We waited till dark; +but though _Philohela_ was there, and sounded his _yak_ two or three +times,--just enough to excite our hopes,--yet for some reason he kept to +_terra firma_. Perhaps he was aware of our presence, and disdained to +exhibit himself in the _rôle_ of a wooer under our profane and curious +gaze; or possibly, as my more scientific (and less sentimental) +companion suggested, the light breeze may have been counted unfavorable +for such high-flying exploits. + +After all, our matter-of-fact world is surprisingly full of romance. Who +would have expected to find this heavy-bodied, long-billed, +gross-looking, bull-headed bird singing at heaven's gate? _He_ a +"scorner of the ground"? Verily, love worketh wonders! And perhaps it is +really true that the outward semblance is sometimes deceptive. To be +candid, however, I must end with confessing that, after listening to the +woodcock's "hymn" a good many times, first and last, I cannot help +thinking that it takes an imaginative ear to discover anything properly +to be called a song in its monotonous _click, click_, even at its +fastest and loudest.[23] + +While I was enjoying the farewell _matinée_ of the fox-colored sparrows +on the 11th, suddenly there ran into the chorus the fine silver thread +of the winter wren's tune. Here was pleasure unexpected. It is down in +all the books, I believe, that this bird does not sing while on his +travels; and certainly I had myself never known him to do anything of +the sort before. But there is always something new under the sun. + + "Who ever heard of th' Indian Peru? + Or who in venturous vessell measurèd + The Amazon's huge river, now found trew? + Or fruitfullest Virginia who did ever vew?" + +I was all ear, of course, standing motionless while the delicious music +came again and again out of a tangle of underbrush behind a dilapidated +stone-wall,--a spot for all the world congenial to this tiny recluse, +whose whole life, we may say, is one long game of hide-and-seek. +Altogether the song was repeated twenty times at least, and to my +thinking I had never heard it given with greater brilliancy and fervor. +The darling little minstrel! he will never know how grateful I felt. I +even forgave him when he sang thrice from a living bush, albeit in so +doing he spoiled a sentence which I had already committed to "the +permanency of print." Birds of all kinds will play such tricks upon us; +but whether the fault be chargeable to fickleness or a mischievous +spirit on their part, rather than to undue haste on the part of us their +reporters, is a matter about which I am perhaps not sufficiently +disinterested to judge. In this instance, however, it was reasonably +certain that the singer did not show himself intentionally; for unless +the whole tenor of his life belies him, the winter wren's motto is, +Little birds should be heard, and not seen. + +Two days afterward I was favored again in like manner. But not by the +same bird, I think; unless my hearing was at fault (the singer was +further off than before), this one's tune was in places somewhat broken +and hesitating,--as if he were practicing a lesson not yet fully +learned. + +I felt under a double obligation to these two specimens of _Anorthura +troglodytes hiemalis_: first for their music itself; and then for the +support which it gave to a pet theory of mine, that all our singing +birds will yet be found to sing more or less regularly in the course of +the vernal migration. + +Within another forty-eight hours this same theory received additional +confirmation. I was standing under an apple-tree, watching a pair of +titmice who were hollowing out a stub for a nest, when my ear caught a +novel song not far away. Of course I made towards it; but the bird flew +off, across the road and into the woods. My hour was up, and I +reluctantly started homeward, but had gone only a few rods before the +song was repeated. This was more than human nature could bear, and, +turning back upon the run, I got into the woods just in time to see two +birds chasing each other round a tree, both uttering the very notes +which had so roused my curiosity. Then away they went; but as I was +again bewailing my evil luck, one of them returned, and flew into the +oak, directly over my head, and as he did so fell to calling anew, _Sue, +suky, suky_. A single glance upward revealed that this was another of +the silent migrants,--a brown creeper! Only once before had I heard from +him anything beside his customary lisping _zee_, _zee_; and even on +that occasion (in June and in New Hampshire) the song bore no +resemblance to his present effort. I have written it down as it sounded +at the moment, _Sue_, _suky_, _suky_, five notes, the first longer than +the others, and all of them brusque, loud, and musical, though with +something of a warbler quality.[24] + +It surprised me to find how the migratory movement lagged for the first +half of the month. A pair of white-breasted swallows flew over my head +while I was attending to the winter wren on the 11th, and on the 14th +appeared the first pine-creeping warblers,--welcome for their own sakes, +and doubly so as the forerunners of a numerous and splendid company; but +aside from these two, I saw no evidence that a single new species +arrived at my station for the entire fortnight. + +Robins sang sparingly from the beginning, and became perceptibly more +musical on the 8th, with signs of mating and jealousy; but the real +robin carnival did not open till the morning of the 14th. Then the +change was wonderful. Some of the birds were flying this way and that, +high in air, two or three together; others chased each other about +nearer the ground; some were screaming, some hissing, and more singing. +So sudden was the outbreak and so great the commotion that I was +persuaded there must have been an arrival of females in the night. + +I have heard it objected against these thrushes, whose extreme +commonness renders them less highly esteemed than they would otherwise +be, that they find their voices too early in the morning. But I am not +myself prepared to second the criticism. They are not often at their +matins, I think, until the eastern sky begins to flush, and it is not +quite certain to my mind that they are wrong in assuming that daylight +makes daytime. I have questioned before now whether our own custom of +sitting up for five or six hours after sunset, and then lying abed two +or three hours after sunrise, may not have come down to us from times +when there were still people in the world who loved darkness rather than +light, because their deeds were evil; and whether, after all, in this as +in some other respects, we might not wisely take pattern of the fowls of +the air. + +Individually, the phoebes were almost as noisy as the robins, but of +course their numbers were far less. They are models of perseverance. +Were their voice equal to the nightingale's they could hardly be more +assiduous and enthusiastic in its use. As a general thing they are +content to repeat the simple _Phoebe, Phoebe_ (there are moods in +the experience of all of us, I hope, when the repetition of a name is by +itself music sufficient), but it is not uncommon for this to be +heightened to _Phoebe, O Phoebe_; and now and then you will hear +some fellow calling excitedly, _Phoebe, Phoebe-be-be-be-be_,--a +comical sort of stuttering, in which the difficulty is not in getting +hold of the first syllable, but in letting go the last one. On the 15th +I witnessed a certain other performance of theirs,--one that I had seen +two or three times the season previous, and for which I had been on the +lookout from the first day of the month. I heard a series of _chips_, +which might have been the cries of a chicken, but which, it appeared, +did proceed from a phoebe, who, as I looked up, was just in the act of +quitting his perch on the ridge-pole of a barn. He rose for perhaps +thirty feet, not spirally, but in a zigzag course,--like a horse +climbing a hill with a heavy load,--all the time calling, _chip, chip, +chip_. Then he went round and round in a small circle, with a kind of +hovering action of the wings, vociferating hurriedly, _Phoebe, +Phoebe, Phoebe_; after which he shot down into the top of a tree, +and with a lively flirt of his tail took up again the same eloquent +theme. During the next few weeks I several times found birds of this +species similarly engaged. And it is worthy of remark that, of the four +flycatchers which regularly pass the summer with us, three may be said +to be, in the _habit_ of singing in the air, while the fourth (the wood +pewee) does the same thing, only with less frequency. It is curious, +also, on the other hand, that not one of our eight common New England +thrushes, as far as I have ever seen or heard, shows the least tendency +toward any such state of lyrical exaltation. Yet the thrushes are song +birds _par excellence_, while the phoebe, the least flycatcher, and +the kingbird are not supposed to be able to sing at all. The latter have +the soul of music in them, at any rate; and why should it not be true of +birds, as it is of human poets and would-be poets, that sensibility and +faculty are not always found together? Perhaps those who have nothing +but the sensibility have, after all, the better half of the blessing. + +The golden-winged woodpeckers shouted comparatively little before the +middle of the month, and I heard nothing of their tender _wick-a-wick_ +until the 22d. After that they were noisy enough. With all their power +of lungs, however, they not only are not singers; they do not aspire to +be. They belong to the tribe of Jubal. Hearing somebody drumming on tin, +I peeped over the wall, and saw one of these pigeon woodpeckers +hammering an old tin pan lying in the middle of the pasture. Rather +small sport, I thought, for so large a bird. But that was a matter of +opinion, merely, and evidently the performer himself had no such +scruples. He may even have considered that his ability to play on this +instrument of the tinsmith's went far to put him on an equality with +some who boast themselves the only tool-using animals. True, the pan was +battered and rusty; but it was resonant, for all that, and day after day +he pleased himself with beating _reveille_ upon it. One morning I found +him sitting in a tree, screaming lustily in response to another bird in +an adjacent field. After a while, waxing ardent, he dropped to the +ground, and, stationing himself before his drum, proceeded to answer +each cry of his rival with a vigorous rubadub, varying the programme +with an occasional halloo. How long this would have lasted there is no +telling, but he caught sight of me, skulking behind a tree-trunk, and +flew back to his lofty perch, where he was still shouting when I came +away. It was observable that, even in his greatest excitement, he paused +once in a while to dress his feathers. At first I was inclined to take +this as betraying a want of earnestness; but further reflection led me +to a different conclusion. For I imagine that the human lover, no matter +how consuming his passion, is seldom carried so far beyond himself as +not to be able to spare now and then a thought to the parting of his +hair and the tie of his cravat. + +Seeing the great delight which this woodpecker took in his precious tin +pan, it seemed to me not at all improbable that he had selected his +summer residence with a view to being near it, just as I had chosen mine +for its convenience of access to the woods on the one hand, and to the +city on the other. I shall watch with interest to see whether he returns +to the same pasture another year. + +A few field sparrows and chippers showed themselves punctually on the +15th; but they were only scouts, and the great body of their followers +were more than a week behind them. I saw no bay-winged buntings until +the 22d, although it is likely enough they had been here for some days +before that. By a lucky chance, my very first bird was a peculiarly +accomplished musician: he altered his tune at nearly every repetition of +it, sang it sometimes loudly and then softly, and once in a while added +cadenza-like phrases. It lost nothing by being heard on a bright, frosty +morning, when the edges of the pools were filmed with ice. + +Only three species of warblers appeared during the month: the +pine-creeping warblers, already spoken of, who were trilling on the +14th; the yellow-rumped, who came on the 23d; and the yellow red-polls, +who followed the next morning. The black-throated greens were +mysteriously tardy, and the black-and-white creepers waited for May-day. + +A single brown thrush was leading the chorus on the 29th. "A great +singer," my note-book says: "not so altogether faultless as some, but +with a large voice and style, adapted to a great part;" and then is +added, "I thought this morning of Titiens, as I listened to him!"--a bit +of impromptu musical criticism, which, under cover of the saving +quotation marks may stand for what it is worth. + +Not long after leaving him I ran upon two hermit thrushes (one had been +seen on the 25th), flitting about the woods like ghosts. I whistled +softly to the first, and he condescended to answer with a low _chuck_, +after which I could get nothing more out of him. This demure taciturnity +is very curious and characteristic, and to me very engaging. The fellow +will neither skulk nor run, but hops upon some low branch, and looks at +you,--behaving not a little as if you were the specimen and he the +student! And in such a case, as far as I can see, the bird equally with +the man has a right to his own point of view. + +The hermits were not yet in tune; and without forgetting the fox-colored +sparrows and the linnets, the song sparrows and the bay-wings, the +winter wrens and the brown thrush, I am almost ready to declare that the +best music of the month came from the smallest of all the month's birds, +the ruby-crowned kinglets. Their spring season is always short with us, +and unhappily it was this year shorter even than usual, my dates being +April 23d and May 5th. But we must be thankful for a little, when the +little is of such a quality. Once I descried two of them in the topmost +branches of a clump of tall maples. For a long time they fed in silence; +then they began to chase each other about through the trees, in graceful +evolutions (I can imagine nothing more graceful), and soon one, and +then the other, broke out into song. "'Infinite riches in a little +room,'" my note-book says, again; and truly the song is marvelous,--a +prolonged and varied warble, introduced and often broken into, with +delightful effect, by a wrennish chatter. For fluency, smoothness, and +ease, and especially for purity and sweetness of tone, I have never +heard any bird-song that seemed to me more nearly perfect. If the dainty +creature would bear confinement,--on which point I know nothing,--he +would make an ideal parlor songster; for his voice, while round and +full,--in contrast with the goldfinch's, for example,--is yet, even at +its loudest, of a wonderful softness and delicacy. Nevertheless, I trust +that nobody will ever cage him. Better far go out-of-doors, and drink in +the exquisite sounds as they drop from the thick of some tall pine, +while you catch now and then a glimpse of the tiny author, flitting +busily from branch to branch, warbling at his work; or, as you may +oftener do, look and listen to your heart's content, while he explores +some low cedar or a cluster of roadside birches, too innocent and happy +to heed your presence. So you will carry home not the song only, but +"the river and sky." + +But if the kinglets were individually the best singers, I must still +confess that the goldfinches gave the best concert. It was on a sunny +afternoon,--the 27th,--and in a small grove of tall pitch-pines. How +many birds there were I could form little estimate, but when fifteen +flew away for a minute or two the chorus was not perceptibly diminished. +All were singing, twittering, and calling together; some of them +directly over my head, the rest scattered throughout the wood. No one +voice predominated in the least; all sang softly, and with an +indescribable tenderness and beauty. Any who do not know how sweet the +goldfinch's note is may get some conception of the effect of such a +concert if they will imagine fifty canaries thus engaged out-of-doors. I +declared then that I had never heard anything so enchanting, and I am +not certain even now that I was over-enthusiastic. + +A pine-creeping warbler, I remember, broke in upon the choir two or +three times with his loud, precise trill. Foolish bird! His is a pretty +song by itself, but set in contrast with music so full of imagination +and poetry, it sounded painfully abrupt and prosaic. + +I discovered the first signs of nest-building on the 13th, while +investigating the question of a bird's ambi-dexterity. It happened that +I had just been watching a chickadee, as he picked chip after chip from +a dead branch, and held them fast with one claw, while he broke them in +pieces with his beak; and walking away, it occurred to me to ask whether +or not he could probably use both feet equally well for such a purpose. +Accordingly, seeing another go into an apple-tree, I drew near to take +his testimony on that point. But when I came to look for him he was +nowhere in sight, and pretty soon it appeared that he was at work in the +end of an upright stub, which he had evidently but just begun to hollow +out, as the tip of his tail still protruded over the edge. A +bird-lover's curiosity can always adapt itself to circumstances, and in +this case it was no hardship to postpone the settlement of my newly +raised inquiry, while I observed the pretty labors of my little +architect. These proved to be by no means inconsiderable, lasting nearly +or quite three weeks. The birds were still bringing away chips on the +30th, when their cavity was about eleven inches deep; but it is to be +said that, as far as I could find out, they never worked in the +afternoon or on rainy days. + +Their demeanor toward each other all this time was beautiful to see; no +effusive display of affection, but every appearance of a perfect mutual +understanding and contentment. And their treatment of me was no less +appropriate and delightful,--a happy combination of freedom and +dignified reserve. I took it for an extremely neat compliment to +myself, as well as incontestable evidence of unusual powers of +discrimination on their part. + +On my second visit the female sounded a call as I approached the tree, +and I looked to see her mate take some notice of it; but he kept +straight on with what he was doing. Not long after she spoke again, +however; and now it was amusing to see the fellow all at once stand +still on the top of the stub, looking up and around, as much as to say, +"What is it, my dear? I see nothing." Apparently it _was_ nothing, and +he went head first into the hole again. Pretty soon, while he was +inside, I stepped up against the trunk. His mate continued silent, and +after what seemed a long time he came out, flew to an adjacent twig, +dropped his load, and returned. This he did over and over (the end of +the stub was perhaps ten feet above my head), and once he let fall a +beakful of chips plump in my face. They were light, and I did not resent +the liberty. + +Two mornings later I found him at his task again, toiling in good +earnest. In and out he went, taking care to bring away the shavings at +every trip, as before, and generally sounding a note or two (keeping the +tally, perhaps) before he dropped them. For the fifteen minutes or so +that I remained, his mate was perched in another branch of the same +tree, not once shifting her position, and doing nothing whatever except +to preen her feathers a little. She paid no attention to her husband, +nor did he to her. It was a revelation to me that a chickadee could +possibly sit still so long. + +Eight days after this they were both at work, spelling each other, and +then going off in company for a brief turn at feeding. + +So far they had never manifested the least annoyance at my espionage; +but the next morning, as I stood against the tree, one of them seemed +slightly disturbed, and flew from twig to twig about my head, looking at +me from all directions with his shining black eyes. The reconnoissance +was satisfactory, however; everything went on as before, and several +times the chips rattled down upon my stiff Derby hat. The hole was +getting deep, it was plain; I could hear the little carpenter hammering +at the bottom, and then scrambling up the walls on his way out. One of +the pair brought a black tidbit from a pine near by, and offered it to +the other as he emerged into daylight. He took it from her bill, said +_chit_,--chickadese for _thank you_,--and hastened back into the mine. + +Finally, on the 27th, after watching their operations a while from the +ground, I swung myself into the tree, and took a seat with them. To my +delight, the work proceeded without interruption. Neither bird made any +outcry, although one of them hopped round me, just out of reach, with +evident curiosity. He must have thought me a queer specimen. When I drew +my overcoat up after me and put it on, they flew away; but within a +minute or two they were both back again, working as merrily as ever, and +taking no pains not to litter me with their rubbish. Once the female (I +took it to be she from her smaller size, not from this piece of +shiftlessness) dropped her load without quitting the stub, a thing I had +not seen either of them do before. Twice one brought the other something +to eat. At last the male took another turn at investigating my +character, and it began to look as if he would end with alighting on my +hat. This time, too, I am proud to say, the verdict was favorable. + +Their confidence was not misplaced, and unless all signs failed they +reared a full brood of tits. May their tribe increase! Of birds so +innocent and unobtrusive, so graceful, so merry-hearted, and so musical, +the world can never have too many. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[22] In the titmouse's cosmological system trees occupy a highly +important place, we may be sure; while the purpose of their tall, +upright method of growth no doubt receives a very simple and logical +(and correspondingly lucid) explanation. + +[23] While this book is passing through the press (April 30th, 1885) I +am privileged with another sight and sound of the woodcock's vespertine +performance, and under peculiarly favorable conditions. In the account +given above, sufficient distinction is not made between the clicking +noise, heard while the bird is soaring, and the sounds which signalize +his descent. The former is probably produced by the wings, although I +have heretofore thought otherwise, while the latter are certainly vocal, +and no doubt intended as a song. But they are little if at all louder +than the _click, click_ of the wings, and as far as I have ever been +able to make out are nothing more than a series of quick, breathless +whistles, with no attempt at either melody or rhythm. + +In the present instance I could see only the start and the "finish," +when the bird several times passed directly by and over me, as I stood +in a cluster of low birches, within two or three rods of his point of +departure. His angle of flight was small; quite as if he had been going +and coming from one field to another, in the ordinary course. Once I +timed him, and found that he was on the wing for a few seconds more than +a minute. + +[24] Still further to corroborate my "pet theory," I may say here in a +foot-note, what I have said elsewhere with more detail, that before the +end of the following month the hermit thrushes, the olive-backed +thrushes, and the gray-cheeked thrushes all sang for me in my Melrose +woods. + +Let me explain, also, that when I call the brown creeper a silent +migrant I am not unaware that others beside myself, and more than +myself, have heard him sing while traveling. Mr. William Brewster, as +quoted by Dr. Brewer in the _History of North American Birds_, has been +exceptionally fortunate in this regard. But my expression is correct as +far as the rule is concerned; and the latest word upon the subject which +has come under my eye is this from Mr. E. P. Bicknell's "Study of the +Singing of our Birds," in _The Auk_ for April, 1884: "Some feeble notes, +suggestive of those of _Regulus satrapa_, are this bird's usual +utterance during its visit. Its song I have never heard." + + + + + AN OWL'S HEAD HOLIDAY. + + Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause, + And what the Swede intends, and what the French. + + MILTON. + + + AN OWL'S HEAD HOLIDAY. + + +My trip to Lake Memphremagog was by the way, and was not expected to +detain me for more than twenty-four hours; but when I went ashore at the +Owl's Head Mountain-House, and saw what a lodge in the wilderness it +was, I said to myself, Go to, this is the place; Mount Mansfield will +stand for another year at least, and I will waste no more of my precious +fortnight amid dust and cinders. Here were to be enjoyed many of the +comforts of civilization, with something of the wildness and freedom of +a camp. Out of one of the windows of my large, well-furnished room I +could throw a stone into the trackless forest, where, any time I chose, +I could make the most of a laborious half-hour in traveling half a mile. +The other two opened upon a piazza; whence the lake was to be seen +stretching away northward for ten or fifteen miles, with Mount Orford +and his supporting hills in the near background; while I had only to +walk the length of the piazza to look round the corner of the house at +Owl's Head itself, at whose base we were. The hotel had less than a +dozen guests and no piano, and there was neither carriage-road nor +railway within sight or hearing. Yes, this was the place where I would +spend the eight days which yet remained to me of idle time. + +Of the eight days five were what are called unpleasant; but the +unseasonable cold, which drove the stayers in the house to huddle about +the fire, struck the mosquitoes with a torpor which made strolling in +the woods a double luxury; while the rain was chiefly of the showery +sort, such as a rubber coat and old clothes render comparatively +harmless. Not that I failed to take a hand with my associates in +grumbling about the weather. Table-talk would speedily come to an end in +such circumstances if people were forbidden to criticise the order of +nature; and it is not for me to boast any peculiar sanctity in this +respect. But when all was over, it had to be acknowledged that I, for +one, had been kept in-doors very little. In fact, if the whole truth +were told, it would probably appear that my fellow boarders, seeing my +persistency in disregarding the inclemency of the elements, soon came to +look upon me as decidedly odd, though perhaps not absolutely demented. +At any rate, I was rather glad than otherwise to think so. In those +long days there must often have been a dearth of topics for profitable +conversation, no matter how outrageous the weather, and it was a +pleasure to believe that this little idiosyncracy of mine might answer +to fill here and there a gap. For what generous person does not rejoice +to feel that even in his absence he may be doing something for the +comfort and well-being of his brothers and sisters? As Seneca said, "Man +is born for mutual assistance." + +According to Osgood's "New England," the summit of Owl's Head is 2,743 +feet above the level of the lake, and the path to it is a mile and a +half and thirty rods in length. It may seem niggardly not to throw off +the last petty fraction; and indeed we might well enough let it pass if +it were at the beginning of the route,--if the path, that is, were +thirty rods and a mile and a half long. But this, it will be observed, +is not the case; and it is a fact perfectly well attested, though +perhaps not yet scientifically accounted for (many things are known to +be true which for the present cannot be mathematically demonstrated), +that near the top of a mountain thirty rods are equivalent to a good +deal more than four hundred and ninety-five feet. Let the guide-book's +specification stand, therefore, in all its surveyor-like exactness. +After making the climb four times in the course of eight days, I am not +disposed to abate so much as a jot from the official figures. Rather +than do that I would pin my faith to an unprofessional-looking +sign-board in the rear of the hotel, on which the legend runs, "Summit +of Owl's Head 2-1/4 miles." For aught I know, indeed (in such a world as +this, uncertainty is a principal mark of intelligence),--for aught I +know, both measurements may be correct; which fact, if once it were +established, would easily and naturally explain how it came to pass that +I myself found the distance so much greater on some days than on others; +although, for that matter, which of the two would be actually longer, a +path which should rise 2,743 feet in a mile and a half, or one that +should cover two miles and a quarter in reaching the same elevation, is +a question to which different pedestrians would likely enough return +contradictory answers.[25] + +Yet let me not be thought to magnify so small a feat as the ascent of +Owl's Head, a mountain which the ladies of the Appalachian Club may be +presumed to look upon as hardly better than a hillock. The guide-book's +"thirty rods" have betrayed me into saying more than I intended. It +would have been enough had I mentioned that the way is in many places +steep, while at the time of my visit the constant rains kept it in a +muddy, treacherous condition. I remember still the undignified and +uncomfortable celerity with which, on one occasion, I took my seat in +what was little better than the rocky bed of a brook, such a place as I +should by no means have selected for the purpose had I been granted even +a single moment for deliberation. + +"Hills draw like heaven" (as applied to some of us, it may be feared +that this is rather an under-statement), and it could not have been more +than fifteen minutes after I landed from the Lady of the Lake--the "Old +Lady," as one of the fishermen irreverently called her--before I was on +my way to the summit. + +I was delighted then, as I was afterwards, whenever I entered the woods, +with the extraordinary profusion and variety of the ferns. Among the +rest, and one of the most abundant, was the beautiful _Cystopteris +bulbifera_; its long, narrow, pale green, delicately cut, Dicksonia-like +fronds bending toward the ground at the tip, as if about to take root +for a new start, in the walking-fern's manner. Some of these could not +have been less than four feet in length (including the stipe), and I +picked one which measured about two feet and a half, and bore +twenty-five bulblets underneath. Half a mile from the start, or +thereabouts, the path skirts what I should call the fernery; a circular +space, perhaps one hundred and fifty feet in diameter, set in the midst +of the primeval forest, but itself containing no tree or shrub of any +sort,--nothing but one dense mass of ferns. In the centre was a patch of +the sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis), while around this, and filling +nearly the entire circle, was a magnificent thicket of the ostrich fern +(_Onoclea struthiopteris_), with _sensibilis_ growing hidden and +scattered underneath. About the edge were various other species, notably +_Aspidium Goldianum_, which I here found for the first time, and +_Aspidium aculeatum_, var. _Braunii_. All in all, it was a curious and +pretty sight,--this tiny tarn filled with ferns instead of water,--one +worth going a good distance to see, and sure to attract the notice of +the least observant traveler.[26] + +Ferns are mostly of a gregarious habit. Here at Owl's Head, for +instance, might be seen in one place a rock thickly matted with the +common polypody; in another a patch of the maiden-hair; in still another +a plenty of the Christmas fern, or a smaller group of one of the beech +ferns (_Phegopteris polypodioides_ or _Phegopteris Dryopteris_). Our +grape-ferns or moonworts, on the other hand, covet more elbow-room. The +largest species (_Botrychium Virginianum_), although never growing in +anything like a bed or tuft, was nevertheless common throughout the +woods; you could gather a handful almost anywhere; but I found only one +plant of _Botrychium lanceolatum_, and only two of _Botrychium +matricariæfolium_ (and these a long distance apart), even though, on +account of their rarity and because I had never before seen the latter, +I spent considerable time, first and last, in hunting for them. What can +these diminutive hermits have ever done or suffered, that they should +choose thus to live and die, each by itself, in the vast solitude of a +mountain forest? + +It was already the middle of July, so that I was too late for the better +part of the wood flowers. The oxalis (_Oxalis acetosella_), or +wood-sorrel was in bloom, however, carpeting the ground in many places. +I plucked a blossom now and then to admire the loveliness of the white +cup, with its fine purple lines and golden spots. If each had been +painted on purpose for a queen, they could not have been more daintily +touched. Yet here they were, opening by the thousand, with no human eye +to look upon them. Quite as common (Wordsworth's expression, "Ground +flowers in flocks," would have suited either) was the alpine enchanter's +night-shade (_Circæa alpina_); a most frail and delicate thing, though +it has little other beauty. Who would ever mistrust, to see it, that it +would prove to be connected in any way with the flaunting willow-herb, +or fire-weed? But such incongruities are not confined to the "vegetable +kingdom." The wood-nettle was growing everywhere; a juicy-looking but +coarse weed, resembling our common roadside nettles only in its +blossoms. The cattle had found out what I never should have +surmised,--having had a taste of its sting,--that it is good for food; +there were great patches of it, as likewise of the pale touch-me-not +(_Impatiens pallida_), which had been browsed over by them. It seemed to +me that some of the ferns, the hay-scented for example, ought to have +suited them better; but they passed these all by, as far as I could +detect. About the edges of the woods, and in favorable positions well up +the mountain-side, the flowering raspberry was flourishing; making no +display of itself, but offering to any who should choose to turn aside +and look at them a few blossoms such as, for beauty and fragrance, are +worthy to be, as they really are, cousin to the rose. On one of my +rambles I came upon some plants of a strangely slim and prim aspect; +nothing but a straight, erect, military-looking, needle-like stalk, +bearing a spike of pods at the top, and clasped at the middle by two +small stemless leaves. By some occult means (perhaps their growing with +_Tiarella_ had something to do with the matter) I felt at once that +these must be the mitrewort (_Mitella diphylla_). My prophetic soul was +not always thus explicit and infallible, however. Other novelties I saw, +about which I could make no such happy impromptu guess. And here the +manual afforded little assistance; for it has not yet been found +practicable to "analyze," and so to identify plants simply by the stem +and foliage,--although I remember to have been told, to be sure, of a +young lady who professed that at her college the instruction in botany +was so thorough that it was possible for the student to name any plant +in the world from seeing only a single leaf! But her college was not +Harvard, and Professor Gray has probably never so much as heard of such +an admirable method. + +On the whole, it is good to have the curiosity piqued with here and +there a vegetable stranger,--its name and even its family relationship a +mystery. The leaf is nothing extraordinary, perhaps, yet who knows but +that the bloom may be of the rarest beauty? Or the leaf is of a gracious +shape and texture, but how shall we tell whether the flower will +correspond with it? No; we must do with them as with chance +acquaintances of our own kind. The man looks every inch a gentleman; his +face alone seems a sufficient guaranty of good-breeding and +intelligence; but none the less,--and not forgetting that charity +thinketh no evil,--we shall do well to wait till we have heard him talk +and seen how he will behave, before we put a final label upon him. Wait +for the blossom and the fruit (the blossom _is_ the fruit in its first +stage); for the old rule is still the true one,--alike in botany and in +morals,--"By their fruits ye shall know them." + +What a world within a world the forest is! Under the trees were the +shrubs,--knee-high rock-maples making the ground verdant for acres +together, or dwarf thickets of yew, now bearing green acorn-like +berries; while below these was a variegated carpet, oxalis and the +flower of Linnæus, ferns and club-mosses (the glossy _Lycopodium +lucidulum_ was especially plentiful), to say nothing of the true mosses +and the lichens. + +Of all these things I should have seen more, no doubt, had not my head +been so much of the time in the tree-tops. For yonder were the birds; +and how could I be expected to notice what lay at my feet, while I was +watching intently for a glimpse of the warbler that flitted from twig to +twig amid the foliage of some beech or maple, the very lowest branch of +which, likely enough, was fifty or sixty feet above the ground. It was +in this way (so I choose to believe, at any rate) that I walked four or +five times directly over the acute-leaved hepatica before I finally +discovered it, notwithstanding it was one of the plants for which I had +all the while been on the lookout. + +I said that the birds were in the tree-tops; but of course there were +exceptions. Here and there was a thrush, feeding on the ground; or an +oven-bird might be seen picking his devious way through the underwoods, +in paths of his own, and with a gait of studied and "sanctimonious" +originality. In the list of the lowly must be put the winter wrens also; +one need never look skyward for _them_. For a minute or two during my +first ascent of Owl's Head I had lively hopes of finding one of their +nests. Two or three of the birds were scolding earnestly right about my +feet, as it were, and their cries redoubled, or so I imagined, when I +approached a certain large, moss-grown stump. This I looked over +carefully on all sides, putting my fingers into every possible hole and +crevice, till it became evident that nothing was to be gained by further +search. (What a long chapter we could write, any of us who are +ornithologists, about the nests we did not find!) It dawned upon me a +little later that I had been fooled; that it was not the nest which had +been in question at all. That, wherever it was, had been forsaken some +days before; and the birds were parents and young, the former +distracting my attention by their outcries, while at the same moment +they were ordering the youngsters to make off as quickly as possible, +lest yonder hungry fiend should catch and devour them. If wrens ever +laugh, this pair must have done so that evening, as they recalled to +each other my eager fumbling of that innocent old stump. This opinion as +to the meaning of their conduct was confirmed in the course of a few +days, when I came upon another similar group. These were at first quite +unaware of my presence; and a very pretty family picture they made, in +their snuggery of overthrown trees, the father breaking out into a song +once in a while, or helping his mate to feed the young, who were already +able to pick up a good part of their own living. Before long, however, +one of the pair caught sight of the intruder, and then all at once the +scene changed. The old birds chattered and scolded, bobbing up and down +in their own ridiculous manner (although, considered by itself, this +gesture is perhaps no more laughable than some which other orators are +applauded for making), and soon the place was silent and to all +appearance deserted. + +Notwithstanding Owl's Head is in Canada, the birds, as I soon found, +were not such as characterize the "Canadian Fauna." Olive-backed +thrushes, black-poll warblers, crossbills, pine linnets, and Canada +jays, all of which I had myself seen in the White Mountains, were none +of them here; but instead, to my surprise, were wood thrushes, scarlet +tanagers, and wood pewees,--the two latter species in comparative +abundance. My first wood thrush was seen for a moment only, and although +he had given me a plain sight of his back, I concluded that my eyes must +once more have played me false. But within a day or two, when half-way +down the mountain path, I heard the well-known strain ringing through +the woods. It was unquestionably that, and nothing else, for I sat down +upon a convenient log and listened for ten minutes or more, while the +singer ran through all those inimitable variations which infallibly +distinguish the wood thrush's song from every other. And afterward, to +make assurance doubly sure, I again saw the bird in the best possible +position, and at short range. On looking into the subject, indeed, I +learned that his being here was nothing wonderful; since, while it is +true, as far as the sea-coast is concerned, that he seldom ventures +north of Massachusetts, it is none the less down in the books that he +does pass the summer in Lower Canada, reaching it, probably, by way of +the valley of the St. Lawrence. + +A few robins were about the hotel, and I saw a single veery in the +woods, but the only members of the thrush family that were present in +large numbers were the hermits. These sang everywhere and at all hours. +On the summit, even at mid-day, I was invariably serenaded by them. In +fact they seemed more abundant there than anywhere else; but they were +often to be heard by the lake-side, and in our apple orchard, and once +at least one of them sang at some length from a birch-tree within a few +feet of the piazza, between it and the bowling alley. As far as I have +ever been able to discover, the hermit, for all his name and consequent +reputation, is less timorous and more approachable than any other New +England representative of his "sub-genus." + +On this trip I settled once more a question which I had already settled +several times,--the question, namely, whether the wood thrush or the +hermit is the better singer. This time my decision was in favor of the +former. How the case would have turned had the conditions been reversed, +had there been a hundred of the wood thrushes for one of the hermits, of +course I cannot tell. So true is a certain old Latin proverb, that in +matters of this sort it is impossible for a man to agree even with +himself for any long time together. + +The conspicuous birds, noticed by everybody, were a family of hawks. The +visitor might have no appreciation of music; he might go up the mountain +and down again without minding the thrushes or the wrens,--for there is +nothing about the human ear more wonderful than its ability not to hear; +but these hawks passed a good part of every day in screaming, and were +bound to be attended to by all but the stone-deaf. A native of the +region pointed out a ledge, on which, according to his account, they had +made their nest for more than thirty years. "We call them mountain +hawks," he said, in answer to an inquiry. The keepers of the hotel, +naturally enough, called them eagles; while a young Canadian, who one +day overtook me as I neared the summit, and spent an hour there in my +company, pronounced them fish-hawks. I asked him, carelessly, how he +could be sure of that, and he replied, after a little hesitation, "Why, +they are all the time over the lake; and besides, they sometimes dive +into the water and come up with a fish." The last item would have been +good evidence, no doubt. My difficulty was that I had never seen them +near the lake, and what was more conclusive, their heads were +dark-colored, if not really black. A few minutes after this conversation +I happened to have my glass upon one of them as he approached the +mountain at some distance below us, when my comrade asked, "Looking at +that bird?" "Yes," I answered; on which he continued, in a +matter-of-fact tone, "That's a crow;" plainly thinking that, as I +appeared to be slightly inquisitive about such matters, it would be a +kindness to tell me a thing or two. I made bold to intimate that the +bird had a barred tail, and must, I thought, be one of the hawks. He did +not dispute the point; and, in truth, he was a modest and well-mannered +young gentleman. I liked him in that he knew both how to converse and +how to be silent; without which latter qualification, indeed, not even +an angel would be a desirable mountain-top companion. He gave me +information about the surrounding country such as I was very glad to +get; and in the case of the hawks my advantage over him, if any, was +mainly in this,--that my lack of knowledge partook somewhat more fully +than his of the nature of Lord Bacon's "learned ignorance, that knows +itself." + +Whatever the birds may have been, "mountain hawks," "fish-hawks," or +duck-hawks, their aerial evolutions, as seen from the summit, were +beautiful beyond description. One day in particular three of them were +performing together. For a time they chased each other this way and that +at lightning speed, screaming wildly, though whether in sport or anger I +could not determine. Then they floated majestically, high above us, +while now and then one would set his wings and shoot down, down, till +the precipitous side of the mountain hid him from view; only to reappear +a minute afterward, soaring again, with no apparent effort, to his +former height. + +One of these noisy fellows served me an excellent turn. It was the last +day of my visit, and I had just taken my farewell look at the enchanting +prospect from the summit, when I heard the lisp of a brown creeper. This +was the first of his kind that I had seen here, and I stopped +immediately to watch him, in hopes he would sing. Creeper-like he tried +one tree after another in quick succession, till at last, while he was +exploring a dead spruce which had toppled half-way to the ground, a hawk +screamed loudly overhead. Instantly the little creature flattened +himself against the trunk, spreading his wings to their very utmost and +ducking his head until, though I had been all the while eying his +motions through a glass at the distance of only a few rods, it was +almost impossible to believe that yonder tiny brown fleck upon the bark +was really a bird and not a lichen. He remained in this posture for +perhaps a minute, only putting up his head two or three times to peer +cautiously round. Unless I misjudged him, he did not discriminate +between the screech of the hawk and the _ank, ank_ of a nuthatch, which +followed it; and this, with an indefinable something in his manner, made +me suspect him of being a young bird. Young or old, however, he had +learned one lesson well, at all events, one which I hoped would keep him +out of the talons of his enemies for long days to come. + +It was pleasant to see how cheerfully he resumed work as soon as the +alarm was over. _This_ danger was escaped, at any rate; and why should +he make himself miserable with worrying about the next? He had the true +philosophy. We who pity the birds for their numberless perils are +ourselves in no better case. Consumption, fevers, accidents, enemies of +every name are continually lying in wait for our destruction. We walk +surrounded with them; seeing them not, to be sure, but knowing, all the +same, that they are there; yet feeling, too, like the birds, that in +some way or other we shall elude them a while longer, and holding at +second hand the truth which these humble creatures practice upon +instinctively,--"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." + +Not far from this spot, on a previous occasion, I had very unexpectedly +come face to face with another of the creeper's blood-thirsty +persecutors. It happened that a warbler was singing in a lofty birch, +and being in doubt about the song (which was a little like the +Nashville's, but longer in each of its two parts and ending with a less +confused flourish), I was of course very desirous to see the singer. But +to catch sight of a small bird amid thick foliage, fifty feet or more +above you, is not an easy matter, as I believe I have already once +remarked. So when I grew weary of the attempt, I bethought myself to +try the efficacy of an old device, well known to all collectors, and +proceeded to imitate, as well as I could, the cries of some bird in +distress. My warbler was imperturbable. He had no nest or young to be +anxious about, and kept on singing. But pretty soon I was apprised of +something in the air, coming toward me, and looking up, beheld a large +owl who appeared to be dropping straight upon my head. He saw me in time +to avoid such a catastrophe, however, and, describing a graceful curve, +alighted on a low branch near by, and stared at me as only an owl can. +Then away he went, while at the same instant a jay dashed into the +thicket and out again, shouting derisively, "I saw you! I saw you!" +Evidently the trick was a good one, and moderately well played; in +further confirmation of which the owl hooted twice in response to some +peculiarly happy efforts on my part, and then actually came back again +for another look. This proved sufficient, and he quickly disappeared; +retiring to his leafy covert or hollow tree, to meditate, no doubt, on +the strange creature whose unseasonable noises had disturbed his +afternoon slumbers. Likely enough he could not readily fall asleep again +for wondering how I could possibly find my way through the woods in the +darkness of daylight. So difficult is it, we may suppose, for even an +owl to put himself in another's place and see with another's eyes. + +This little episode over, I turned again to the birch-tree, and +fortunately the warbler's throat was of too fiery a color to remain long +concealed; though it was at once a pleasure and an annoyance to find +myself still unacquainted with at least one song out of the +Blackburnian's repertory. In times past I had carefully attended to his +music, and within only a few days, in the White Mountain Notch, I had +taken note of two of its variations; but here was still another, which +neither began with _zillup, zillup_, nor ended with _zip, zip_,--notes +which I had come to look upon as the Blackburnian's sign-vocal. Yet it +must have been my fault, not his, that I failed to recognize him; for +every bird's voice has something characteristic about it, just as every +human voice has tones and inflections which those who are sufficiently +familiar with its owner will infallibly detect. The ear feels them, +although words cannot describe them. Articulate speech is but a modern +invention, as it were, in comparison with the five senses; and since +practice makes perfect, it is natural enough that every one of the five +should easily, and as a matter of course, perceive shades of difference +so slight that language, in its present rudimentary state, cannot begin +to take account of them. + +The other warblers at Owl's Head, as far as they came under my notice, +were the black-and-white creeper, the blue yellow-backed warbler, the +Nashville, the black-throated green, the black-throated blue, the +yellow-rumped, the chestnut-sided, the oven-bird (already spoken of), +the small-billed water thrush, the Maryland yellow-throat, the Canadian +flycatcher, and the redstart. + +The water thrush (I saw only one individual) was by the lake-side, and +within a rod or two of the bowling alley. What a strange, composite +creature he is! thrush, warbler, and sandpiper all in one; with such a +bare-footed, bare-legged appearance, too, as if he must always be ready +to wade; and such a Saint Vitus's dance! His must be a curious history. +In particular, I should like to know the origin of his teetering habit, +which seems to put him among the beach birds. Can it be that such +frequenters of shallow water are rendered less conspicuous by this +wave-like, up-and-down motion, and have actually adopted it as a means +of defense, just as they and many more have taken on a color harmonizing +with that of their ordinary surroundings?[27] + +The black-throated blue warblers were common, and like most of their +tribe were waiting upon offspring just out of the nest. I watched one as +he offered his charge a rather large insect. The awkward fledgeling let +it fall three times; and still the parent picked it up again, only +chirping mildly, as if to say, "Come, come, my beauty, don't be quite so +bungling." But even in the midst of their family cares, they still found +leisure for music; and as they and the black-throated greens were often +singing together, I had excellent opportunities to compare the songs of +the two species. The voices, while both very peculiar, are at the same +time so nearly alike that it was impossible for me on hearing the first +note of either strain to tell whose it was. With the voice the +similarity ends, however; for the organ does not make the singer, and +while the blue seldom attempts more than a harsh, monotonous _kree, +kree, kree_, the green possesses the true lyrical gift, so that few of +our birds have a more engaging song than his simple _Trees, trees, +murmuring trees_, or if you choose to understand it so, _Sleep, sleep, +pretty one, sleep_.[28] + +I saw little of the blue yellow-backed warbler, but whenever I took the +mountain path I was certain to hear his whimsical upward-running song, +broken off at the end with a smart snap. He seemed to have chosen the +neighborhood of the fernery for his peculiar haunt, a piece of good +taste quite in accord with his general character. Nothing could well be +more beautiful than this bird's plumage; and his nest, which is +"globular, with an entrance on one side," is described as a wonder of +elegance; while in grace of movement not even the titmouse can surpass +him. Strange that such an exquisite should have so fantastic a song. + +I have spoken of the rainy weather. There were times when the piazza was +as far out-of-doors as it was expedient to venture. But even then I was +not without excellent feathered society. Red-eyed vireos (one pair had +their nest within twenty feet of the hotel), chippers, song sparrows, +snow-birds, robins, waxwings, and phoebes were to be seen almost any +moment, while the hermit thrushes, as I have before mentioned, paid us +occasional visits. The most familiar of our door-yard friends, however, +to my surprise, were the yellow-rumped warblers. Till now I had never +found them at home except in the forests of the White Mountains; but +here they were, playing the _rôle_ which in Massachusetts we are +accustomed to see taken by the summer yellow-birds, and by no others of +the family. At first, knowing that this species was said to build in low +evergreens, I looked suspiciously at some small spruces which lined the +walk to the pier; but after a while I happened to see one of the birds +flying into a rock-maple with something in his bill, and following him +with my eye, beheld him alight on the edge of his nest. "About four feet +from the ground," the book said (the latest book, too); but this lawless +pair had chosen a position which could hardly be less than ten times +that height,--considerably higher, at all events, than the eaves of the +three-story house. It was out of reach in the small topmost branches, +but I watched its owners at my leisure, as the maple was not more than +two rods from my window. At this time the nestlings were nearly ready +to fly, and in the course of a day or two I saw one of them sitting in a +tree in the midst of a drenching rain. On my offering to lay hold of him +he dropped into the grass, and when I picked him up both parents began +to fly about me excitedly, with loud outcries. The male, especially, +went nearly frantic, entering the bowling alley where I happened to be, +and alighting on the floor; then, taking to the bole of a tree, he +fluttered helplessly upon it, spreading his wings and tail, seeming to +say as plainly as words could have done, "Look, you monster! here's +another young bird that can't fly; why don't you come and catch him?" +The acting was admirable,--all save the spreading of the tail; that was +a false note, for the youngster in my hand had no tail feathers at all. +I put the fellow upon a tree, whence he quickly flew to the ground (he +could fly down but not up), and soon both parents were again supplying +him with food. The poor thing had not eaten a morsel for possibly ten +minutes, a very long fast for a bird of his age. I hoped he would fall +into the hands of no worse enemy than myself, but the chances seemed +against him. The first few days after quitting the nest must be full of +perils for such helpless innocents. + +For the credit of my own sex I was pleased to notice that it was the +father-bird who manifested the deepest concern and the readiest wit, not +to say the greatest courage; but I am obliged in candor to acknowledge +that this feature of the case surprised me not a little. + +In what language shall I speak of the song of these familiar myrtle +warblers, so that my praise may correspond in some degree with the +gracious and beautiful simplicity of the strain itself? For music to be +heard constantly, right under one's window, it could scarcely be +improved; sweet, brief, and remarkably unobtrusive, without sharpness or +emphasis; a trill not altogether unlike the pine-creeping warbler's, but +less matter-of-fact and business-like. I used to listen to it before I +rose in the morning, and it was to be heard at intervals all day long. +Occasionally it was given in an absent-minded, meditative way, in a kind +of half-voice, as if the happy creature had no thought of what he was +doing. Then it was at its best, but one needed to be near the singer. + +In a clearing back of the hotel, but surrounded by the forest, were +always a goodly company of birds, among the rest a family of +yellow-bellied woodpeckers; and in a second similar place were +white-throated sparrows, Maryland yellow-throats, and chestnut-sided +warblers, the last two feeding their young. Immature warblers are a +puzzling set. The birds themselves have no difficulty, I suppose; but +seeing young and old together, and noting how unlike they are, I have +before now been reminded of Launcelot Gobbo's saying, "It is a wise +father that knows his own child." + +While traversing the woods between these two clearings I saw, as I +thought, a chimney swift fly out of the top of a tree which had been +broken off at a height of twenty-five or thirty feet. I stopped, and +pretty soon the thing was repeated; but even then I was not quick enough +to be certain whether the bird really came from the stump or only out of +the forest behind it. Accordingly, after sounding the trunk to make sure +it was hollow, I sat down in a clump of raspberry bushes, where I should +be sufficiently concealed, and awaited further developments. I waited +and waited, while the mosquitoes, seeing how sheltered I was from the +breeze, gathered about my head in swarms. A winter wren at my elbow +struck up to sing, going over and over with his exquisite tune; and a +scarlet tanager, also, not far off, did what he could--which was +somewhat less than the wren's--to relieve the tedium of my situation. +Finally, when my patience was well-nigh exhausted,--for the afternoon +was wearing away and I had some distance to walk,--a swift flew past me +from behind, and, with none of that poising over the entrance such as is +commonly seen when a swift goes down a chimney, went straight into the +trunk. In half a minute or less he reappeared without a sound, and was +out of sight in a second. Then I picked up my rubber coat, and with a +blessing on the wren and the tanager, and a malediction on the +mosquitoes (so unjust does self-interest make us), started homeward. + +Conservatives and radicals! Even the swifts, it seems, are divided into +these two classes. "Hollow trees were good enough for our fathers; who +are we that we should assume to know more than all the generations +before us? To change is not of necessity to make progress. Let those who +will, take up with smoky chimneys; for our part we prefer the old way." + +Thus far the conservatives; but now comes the party of modern ideas. +"All that is very well," say they. "Our ancestors were worthy folk +enough; they did the best they could in their time. But the world moves, +and wise birds will move with it. Why should we make a fetish out of +some dead forefather's example? _We_ are alive now. To refuse to take +advantage of increased light and improved conditions may look like +filial piety in the eyes of some: to us such conduct appears nothing +better than a distrust of the Divine Providence, a subtle form of +atheism. What are chimneys for, pray? And as for soot and smoke, we were +made to live in them. Otherwise, let some of our opponents be kind +enough to explain why we were created with black feathers." + +So, in brief, the discussion runs; with the usual result, no doubt, that +each side convinces itself. + +We may assume, however, that these old-school and new-school swifts do +not carry their disagreement so far as actually to refuse to hold +fellowship with one another. Conscience is but imperfectly developed in +birds, as yet, and they can hardly feel each other's sins and errors of +belief (if indeed these things be two, and not one) quite so keenly as +men are accustomed to do. + +After all, it is something to be grateful for, this diversity of habit. +We could not spare the swifts from our villages, and it would be too bad +to lose them out of the Northern forests. May they live and thrive, both +parties of them. + +I am glad, also, for the obscurity which attends their annual coming and +going. Whether they hibernate or migrate, the secret is their own; and +for my part, I wish them the wit to keep it. In this age, when the world +is in such danger of becoming omniscient before the time, it is good to +have here and there a mystery in reserve. Though it be only a little +one, we may well cherish it as a treasure. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[25] The guide-book allows two hours for the mile and a half on Owl's +Head, while it gives only an hour and a half for the three miles up +Mount Clinton--from the Crawford House. + +[26] To bear out what has been said in the text concerning the abundance +of ferns at Owl's Head, I subjoin a list of the species observed; +premising that the first interest of my trip was not botanical, and that +I explored but a very small section of the woods:-- + + _Polypodium vulgare._ + _Adiantum pedatum._ + _Pteris aquilina._ + _Asplenium Trichomanes._ + _A. thelypteroides._ + _A. Filix-foemina._ + _Phegopteris polypodioides._ + _P. Dryopteris._ + _Aspidium marginale._ + _A. spinulosum_, variety undetermined. + _A. spinulosum_, var. _dilatatum_. + _A. Goldianum._ + _A. acrostichoides._ + _A. aculeatum_, var. _Braunii_. + _Cystopteris bulbifera._ + _C. fragilis._ + _Onoclea struthiopteris._ + _O. sensibilis._ + _Woodsia Ilvensis._ + _Dicksonia punctilobula._ + _Osmunda regalis._ + _O. Claytoniana._ + _O. cinnamomea._ + _Botrychium lanceolatum._ + _B. matricariæfolium._ + _B. ternatum._ + _B. Virginianum._ + +[27] This bird (_Siurus nævius_) is remarkable for the promptness with +which he sets out on his autumnal journey, appearing in Eastern +Massachusetts early in August. Last year (1884) one was in my door-yard +on the morning of the 7th. I heard his loud chip, and looking out of the +window, saw him first on the ground and then in an ash-tree near a crowd +of house sparrows. The latter were scolding at him with their usual +cordiality, while he, on his part, seemed under some kind of +fascination, returning again and again to walk as closely as he dared +about the blustering crew. His curiosity was laughable. Evidently he +thought, considering what an ado the sparrows were making, that +something serious must be going on, something worth any bird's while to +turn aside for a moment to look into. The innocent recluse! if he had +lived where I do he would have grown used to such "windy congresses." + +[28] After all that has been said about the "pathetic fallacy," so +called, it remains true that Nature speaks to us according to our mood. +With all her "various language" she "cannot talk and find ears too." And +so it happens that some, listening to the black-throated green warbler, +have brought back a report of "_Cheese, cheese, a little more cheese_." +Prosaic and hungry souls! This voice out of the pine-trees was not for +them. They have caught the rhythm but missed the poetry. + + + + + A MONTH'S MUSIC + + And now 'twas like all instruments, + Now like a lonely flute; + And now it is an angel's song, + That makes the heavens be mute. + + COLERIDGE. + + + A MONTH'S MUSIC. + + +The morning of May-day was bright and spring-like, and should have been +signalized, it seemed to me, by the advent of a goodly number of birds; +but the only new-comer to be found was a single black-and-white creeper. +Glad as I was to see this lowly acquaintance back again after his seven +months' absence, and natural as he looked on the edge of Warbler Swamp, +bobbing along the branches in his own unique, end-for-end fashion, there +was no resisting a sensation of disappointment. Why could not the wood +thrush have been punctual? _He_ would have made the woods ring with an +ode worthy of the festival. Possibly the hermits--who had been with us +for several days in silence--divined my thoughts. At all events, one of +them presently broke into a song--the first _Hylocichla_ note of the +year. Never was voice more beautiful. Like the poet's dream, it "left my +after-morn content." + +It is too much to be expected that the wood thrush should hold himself +bound to appear at a given point on a fixed date. How can we know the +multitude of reasons, any one of which may detain him for twenty-four +hours, or even for a week? It is enough for us to be assured, in +general, that the first ten days of the month will bring this master of +the choir. The present season he arrived on the 6th--the veery with him; +last year he was absent until the 8th; while on the two years preceding +he assisted at the observance of May-day. + +All in all, I must esteem this thrush our greatest singer; although the +hermit might dispute the palm, perhaps, but that he is merely a +semi-annual visitor in most parts of Massachusetts. If perfection be +held to consist in the absence of flaw, the hermit's is unquestionably +the more nearly perfect song of the two. Whatever he attempts is done +beyond criticism; but his range and variety are far less than his +rival's, and, for my part, I can forgive the latter if now and then he +reaches after a note lying a little beyond his best voice, and withal is +too commonly wanting in that absolute simplicity and ease which lend +such an ineffable charm to the performance of the hermit and the veery. +Shakespeare is not a faultless poet, but in the existing state of public +opinion it will hardly do to set Gray above him. + +In the course of the month about which I am now writing (May, 1884) I +was favored with thrush music to a quite unwonted degree. With the +exception of the varied thrush (a New-Englander by accident only) and +the mocking-bird, there was not one of our Massachusetts representatives +of the family who did not put me in his debt. The robin, the brown +thrush, the cat-bird, the wood thrush, the veery, and even the hermit +(what a magnificent sextette!)--so many I counted upon hearing, as a +matter of course; but when to these were added the Arctic thrushes--the +olive-backed and the gray-cheeked--I gladly confessed surprise. I had +never heard either species before, south of the White Mountains; nor, as +far as I then knew, had anybody else been more fortunate than myself. +Yet the birds themselves were seemingly unaware of doing anything new or +noteworthy. This was especially the case with the olive-backs; and after +listening to them for three days in succession I began to suspect that +they _were_ doing nothing new,--that they had sung every spring in the +same manner, only, in the midst of the grand May medley, my ears had +somehow failed to take account of their contribution. Their fourth (and +farewell) appearance was on the 23d, when they sang both morning and +evening. At that time they were in a bit of swamp, among some tall +birches, and as I caught the familiar and characteristic notes--a brief +ascending spiral--I was almost ready to believe myself in some primeval +New Hampshire forest; an illusion not a little aided by the frequent +lisping of black-poll warblers, who chanced just then to be remarkably +abundant. + +It was on the same day, and within a short distance of the same spot, +that the Alice thrushes, or gray-cheeks, were in song. Their music was +repeated a good many times, but unhappily it ceased whenever I tried to +get near the birds. Then, as always, it put me in mind of the veery's +effort, notwithstanding a certain part of the strain was quite out of +the veery's manner, and the whole was pitched in decidedly too high a +key. It seemed, also, as if what I heard could not be the complete song; +but I had been troubled with the same feeling on previous occasions, and +a friend whose opportunities have been better than mine reports a +similiar experience; so that it is perhaps not uncharitable to conclude +that the song, even at its best, is more or less broken and amorphous. + +In their Northern homes these gray-cheeks are excessively wild and +unapproachable; but while traveling they are little if at all worse than +their congeners in this respect,--taking short flights when disturbed, +and often doing nothing more than to hop upon some low perch to +reconnoitre the intruder. + +At the risk of being thought to reflect upon the acuteness of more +competent observers, I am free to express my hope of hearing the music +of both these noble visitors again another season. For it is noticeable +how common such things tend to become when once they are discovered. An +enthusiastic botanical collector told me that for years he searched far +and near for the adder's-tongue fern, till one day he stumbled upon it +in a place over which he had long been in the habit of passing. Marking +the peculiarities of the spot he straightway wrote to a kindred spirit, +whom he knew to have been engaged in the same hunt, suggesting that he +would probably find the coveted plants in a particular section of the +meadow back of his own house (in Concord); and sure enough, the next +day's mail brought an envelope from his friend, inclosing specimens of +_Ophioglossum vulgatum_, with the laconic but sufficient message, +_Eureka!_ There are few naturalists, I suspect, who could not narrate +adventures of a like sort. + +One such befell me during this same month, in connection with the wood +wagtail, or golden-crowned thrush. Not many birds are more abundant than +he in my neighborhood, and I fancied myself pretty well acquainted with +his habits and manners. Above all, I had paid attention to his +celebrated love-song, listening to it almost daily for several summers. +Thus far it had invariably been given out in the afternoon, and on the +wing. To my mind, indeed, this was by far its most interesting feature +(for in itself the song is by no means of surpassing beauty), and I had +even been careful to record the earliest hour at which I had heard +it--three o'clock P. M. But on the 6th of May aforesaid I detected a +bird practicing this very tune in the morning, and from a perch! I set +the fact down without hesitation as a wonder,--a purely exceptional +occurrence, the repetition of which was not to be looked for. Anything +might happen once. Only four days afterwards, however, at half-past six +in the morning, I had stooped to gather some peculiarly bright-colored +anemones (I can see the patch of rosy blossoms at this moment, although +I am writing by a blazing fire while the snow is falling without), when +my ear caught the same song again; and keeping my position, I soon +descried the fellow stepping through the grass within ten yards of me, +caroling as he walked. The hurried warble, with the common _Weechee_, +_weechee_, _weechee_ interjected in the midst, was reiterated perhaps a +dozen times,--the full evening strain, but in a rather subdued tone. He +was under no excitement, and appeared to be entirely by himself; in +fact, when he had made about half the circuit round me he flew into a +low bush and proceeded to dress his feathers listlessly. Probably what I +had overheard was nothing more than a rehearsal. Within a week or two he +would need to do his very best in winning the fair one of his choice, +and for that supreme moment he had already put himself in training. The +wise-hearted and obliging little beau! I must have been the veriest +churl not to wish him his pick of all the feminine wagtails in the wood. +As for the pink anemones, they had done me a double kindness, in +requital for which I could only carry them to the city, where, in their +modesty, they would have blushed to a downright crimson had they been +conscious of one-half the admiration which their loveliness called +forth. + +Before the end of the month (it was on the morning of the 18th) I once +more heard the wagtail's song from the ground. This time the affair was +anything but a rehearsal. There were two birds,--a lover and his +lass,--and the wooing waxed fast and furious. For that matter, it looked +not so much like love-making as like an aggravated case of assault and +battery. But, as I say, the male was warbling, and not improbably (so +strange are the ways of the world), if he had been a whit less +pugnacious in his addresses, his lady-love, who was plainly well able +to take care of herself, would have thought him deficient in +earnestness. At any rate, the wood wagtail is not the only bird whose +courtship has the appearance of a scrimmage; and I believe there are +still tribes of men among whom similar practices prevail, although the +greater part of our race have learned, by this time, to take somewhat +less literally the old proverb, "None but the brave deserve the fair." +Love, it is true, is still recognized as one of the passions (in theory +at least) even among the most highly civilized peoples; but the tendency +is more and more to count it a _tender_ passion. + +While I am on the subject of marriage I may as well mention the +white-eyed vireo. It had come to be the 16th of the month, and as yet I +had neither seen nor heard anything of this obstreperous genius; so I +made a special pilgrimage to a certain favorite haunt of his--Woodcock +Swamp--to ascertain if he had arrived. After fifteen minutes or more of +waiting I was beginning to believe him still absent, when he burst out +suddenly with his loud and unmistakable _Chip-a-weé-o_. "Who are _you_, +now?" the saucy fellow seemed to say, "Who are _you_, now?" Pretty soon +a pair of the birds appeared near me, the male protesting his affection +at a frantic rate, and the female repelling his advances with a snappish +determination which might have driven a timid suitor desperate. He +posed before her, puffing out his feathers, spreading his tail, and +crying hysterically, _Yip, yip, yaah_,--the last note a downright whine +or snarl, worthy of the cat-bird. Poor soul! he was well-nigh beside +himself, and could not take _no_ for an answer, even when the word was +emphasized with an ugly dab of his beloved's beak. The pair shortly +disappeared in the swamp, and I was not privileged to witness the upshot +of the battle; but I consoled myself with believing that Phyllis knew +how far she could prudently carry her resistance, and would have the +discretion to yield before her adorer's heart was irremediably broken. + +In this instance there was no misconceiving the meaning of the action; +but whoever watches birds in the pairing season is often at his wit's +end to know what to make of their demonstrations. One morning a linnet +chased another past me down the road, flying at the very top of his +speed, and singing as he flew; not, to be sure, the full and copious +warble such as is heard when the bird hovers, but still a lively tune. I +looked on in astonishment. It seemed incredible that any creature could +sing while putting forth such tremendous muscular exertions; and yet, as +if to show that this was a mere nothing to him, the finch had no sooner +struck a perch than he broke forth again in his loudest and most +spirited manner, and continued without a pause for two or three times +the length of his longest ordinary efforts. "What lungs he must have!" I +said to myself; and at once fell to wondering what could have stirred +him up to such a pitch of excitement, and whether the bird he had been +pursuing was male or female. _He_ would have said, perhaps, if he had +said anything, that that was none of my business. + +What I have been remarking with regard to the proneness of newly +discovered things to become all at once common was well illustrated for +me about this time by these same linnets, or purple finches. One rainy +morning, while making my accustomed rounds, enveloped in rubber, I +stopped to notice a blue-headed vireo, who, as I soon perceived, was +sitting lazily in the top of a locust-tree, looking rather disconsolate, +and ejaculating with not more than half his customary voice and +emphasis, _Mary Ware!--Mary Ware!_ His indolence struck me as very +surprising for a vireo; still I had no question about his identity (he +sat between me and the sun) till I changed my position, when behold! the +vireo was a linnet. A strange performance, indeed! What could have set +this fluent vocalist to practicing exercises of such an inferior, +disconnected, piecemeal sort? Within the next week or two, however, the +same game was played upon me several times, and in different places. No +doubt the trick is an old one, familiar to many observers, but to me it +had all the charm of novelty. + +There are no birds so conservative but that they will now and then +indulge in some unexpected stroke of originality. Few are more artless +and regular in their musical efforts than the pine warblers; yet I have +seen one of these sitting at the tip of a tree, and repeating a trill +which toward the close invariably declined by an interval of perhaps +three tones. Even the chipping sparrow, whose lay is yet more monotonous +and formal than the pine warbler's, is not absolutely confined to his +score. I once heard him when his trill was divided into two portions, +the concluding half being much higher than the other--unless my ear was +at fault, exactly an octave higher. This singular refrain was given out +six or eight times without the slightest alteration. Such freaks as +these, however, are different from the linnet's _Mary Ware_, inasmuch as +they are certainly the idiosyncrasies of single birds, not a part of the +artistic proficiency of the species as a whole. + +During this month I was lucky enough to close a little question which I +had been holding open for a number of years concerning our very common +and familiar black-throated green warbler. This species, as is well +known, has two perfectly well-defined tunes of about equal length, +entirely distinct from each other. My uncertainty had been as to whether +the two are ever used by the same individual. I had listened a good many +times, first and last, in hopes to settle the point, but hitherto +without success. Now, however, a bird, while under my eye, delivered +both songs, and then went on to give further proof of his versatility by +repeating one of them _minus_ the final note. This abbreviation, by the +way, is not very infrequent with _Dendroeca virens_; and he has still +another variation, which I hear once in a while every season, consisting +of a grace note introduced in the middle of the measure, in such a +connection as to form what in musical language is denominated a turn. At +my first hearing of this I looked upon it as the private property of the +bird to whom I was listening,--an improvement which he had accidentally +hit upon. But it is clearly more than that; for besides hearing it in +different seasons, I have noticed it in places a good distance apart. +Perhaps, after the lapse of ten thousand years, more or less, the whole +tribe of black-throated greens will have adopted it; and then, when some +ornithologist chances to fall in with an old-fashioned specimen who +still clings to the plain song as we now commonly hear it, he will fancy +_that_ to be the very latest modern improvement, and proceed forthwith +to enlighten the scientific world with a description of the novelty. + +Hardly any incident of the month interested me more than a discovery (I +must call it such, although I am almost ashamed to allude to it at all) +which I made about the black-capped titmouse. For several mornings in +succession I was greeted on waking by the trisyllabic minor whistle of a +chickadee, who piped again and again not far from my window. There could +be little doubt about its being the bird that I knew to be excavating a +building site in one of our apple-trees; but I was usually not +out-of-doors until about five o'clock, by which time the music always +came to an end. So one day I rose half an hour earlier than common on +purpose to have a look at my little matutinal serenader. My conjecture +proved correct. There sat the tit, within a few feet of his apple-branch +door, throwing back his head in the truest lyrical fashion, and calling +_Hear, hear me_, with only a breathing space between the repetitions of +the phrase. He was as plainly _singing_, and as completely absorbed in +his work, as any thrasher or hermit thrush could have been. Heretofore +I had not realized that these whistled notes were so strictly a song, +and as such set apart from all the rest of the chickadee's repertory of +sweet sounds; and I was delighted to find my tiny pet recognizing thus +unmistakably the difference between prose and poetry. + +But we linger unduly with these lesser lights of song. After the music +of the Alice and the Swainson thrushes, the chief distinction of May, +1884, as far as my Melrose woods were concerned, was the entirely +unexpected advent of a colony of rose-breasted grosbeaks. For five +seasons I had called these hunting-grounds my own, and during that time +had seen perhaps about the same number of specimens of this royal +species, always in the course of the vernal migration. The present year +the first comer was observed on the 15th--solitary and, except for an +occasional monosyllable, silent. Only one more straggler, I assumed. But +on the following morning I saw four others, all of them males in full +plumage, and two of them in song. To one of these I attended for some +time. According to my notes "he sang beautifully, although not with any +excitement, nor as if he were doing his best. The tone was purer and +smoother than the robin's, more mellow and sympathetic, and the strain +was especially characterized by a dropping to a fine contralto note at +the end." The next day I saw nothing of my new friends till toward +night. Then, after tea, I strolled into the chestnut grove, and walking +along the path, noticed a robin singing freely, remarking the fact +because this noisy bird had been rather quiet of late. Just as I passed +under him, however, it flashed upon me that the voice and song were not +exactly the robin's. They must be the rose-breast's then; and stepping +back to look up, I beheld him in gorgeous attire, perched in the top of +an oak. He sang and sang, while I stood quietly listening. Pretty soon +he repeated the strain once or twice in a softer voice, and I glanced up +instinctively to see if a female were with him; but instead, there were +two males sitting within a yard of each other. They flew off after a +little, and I resumed my saunter. A party of chimney swifts were +shooting hither and thither over the trees, a single wood thrush was +chanting not far away, and in another direction a tanager was rehearsing +his _chip-cherr_ with characteristic assiduity. Presently I began to be +puzzled by a note which came now from this side, now from that, and +sounded like the squeak of a pair of rusty shears. My first conjecture +about the origin of this _hic_ it would hardly serve my reputation to +make public; but I was not long in finding out that it was the +grosbeaks' own, and that, instead of three, there were at least twice +that number of these brilliant strangers in the grove. Altogether, the +half hour was one of very enjoyable excitement; and when, later in the +evening, I sat down to my note-book, I started off abruptly in a +hortatory vein,--"Always take another walk!" + +In the morning, naturally enough, I again turned my steps toward the +chestnut grove. The rose-breasts were still there, and one of them +earned my thanks by singing on the wing, flying slowly--half-hovering, +as it were--and singing the ordinary song, but more continuously than +usual. That afternoon one of them was in tune at the same time with a +robin, affording me the desired opportunity for a direct comparison. "It +is really wonderful," my record says, "how nearly alike the two songs +are; but the robin's tone is plainly inferior,--less mellow and full. In +general, too, his strain is pitched higher; and, what perhaps is the +most striking point of difference, it frequently ends with an attempt at +a note which is a little out of reach, so that the voice breaks." (This +last defect, by the bye, the robin shares with his cousin the wood +thrush, as already remarked.) A few days afterwards, to confirm my own +impression about the likeness of the two songs, I called the attention +of a friend with whom I was walking, to a grosbeak's notes, and asked +him what bird's they were. He, having a good ear for matters of this +kind, looked somewhat dazed at such an inquiry, but answered promptly, +"Why, a robin's, of course." As one day after another passed, however, +and I listened to both species in full voice on every hand, I came to +feel that I had overestimated the resemblance. With increasing +familiarity I discerned more and more clearly the respects in which the +songs differed, and each came to have to my ear an individuality +strictly its own. They were alike, doubtless,--as the red-eyed vireo's +and the blue-head's are,--and yet they were not alike. Of one thing I +grew, better and better assured: the grosbeak is out of all comparison +the finer musician of the two. To judge from my last-year's friends, +however, his concert season is very short--the more's the pity. + +I begin to perceive (indeed it has been dawning upon me for some time) +that our essay is not to fulfill the promise of its caption. Instead of +the glorious fullness and variety of the month's music (for May, in this +latitude, is the musical month of months) the reader has been put off +with a few of the more exceptional features of the carnival. He will +overlook it, I trust; and as for the great body of the chorus, who have +not been honored with so much as a mention, they, I am assured, are far +too amiable to take offense at any such unintentional slight. Let me +conclude, then, with transcribing from my note-book an evening entry or +two. Music is never so sweet as at the twilight hour; and the extracts +may serve at least as a convenient and quasi-artistic ending for a paper +which, so to speak, has run away with its writer. The first is under +date of the 19th:-- + + "Walked, after dinner, in the Old Road, as I have done often of + late, and sat for a while at the entrance to Pyrola Grove. A wood + thrush was singing not far off, and in the midst a Swainson thrush + vouchsafed a few measures. I wished the latter would continue, but + was thankful for the little. A tanager called excitedly, + _Chip-cherr_, moving from tree to tree meanwhile, once to a birch in + full sight, and then into the pine over my head. As it grew dark the + crowd of warblers were still to be seen feeding busily, making the + most of the lingering daylight. A small-billed water thrush was + teetering along a willow-branch, while his congeners, the + oven-birds, were practicing their aerial hymn. One of these went + past me as I stood by the roadside, rising very gradually into the + air and repeating all the way, _Chip, chip, chip, chip_, till at + last he broke into the warble, which was a full half longer than + usual. He was evidently doing his prettiest. No vireos sang after + sunset. A Maryland yellow-throat piped once or twice (he is + habitually an evening musician), and the black-throated greens were + in tune, but the rest of the warblers were otherwise engaged. + Finally, just as a distant whippoorwill began to call, a towhee sang + once from the woods; and a moment later the stillness was broken by + the sudden outburst of a thrasher. 'Now then,' he seemed to say, 'if + the rest of you are quite done, I will see what _I_ can do.' He kept + on for two or three minutes in his best manner, and at the same time + a pair of cat-birds were whispering love together in the thicket. + Then an ill-timed carriage came rattling along the road, and when it + had passed, every bird's voice was hushed. The hyla's tremulous cry + was the only musical sound to be heard. As I started away, one of + these tree-frogs hopped out of my path, and I picked him up at the + second or third attempt. What did he think, I wonder, when I turned + him on his back to look at the disks at his finger-tips? Probably he + supposed that his hour was come; but I had no evil designs upon + him,--he was not to be drowned in alcohol at present. Walking + homeward I heard the robin's scream now and again; but the + thrasher's was the last _song_, as it deserved to be." + +Two days later I find the following:-- + + "Into the woods by the Old Road. As I approached them, a little + after sundown, a chipper was trilling, and song sparrows and golden + warblers were singing,--as were the black-throated greens also, and + the Maryland yellow-throats. A wood thrush called brusquely, but + offered no further salute to the god of day at his departure. + Oven-birds were taking to wing on the right and left. Then, as it + grew dark, it grew silent,--except for the hylas,--till suddenly a + field sparrow gave out his sweet strain once. After that all was + quiet for another interval, till a thrasher from the hillside began + to sing. He ceased, and once more there was stillness. All at once + the tanager broke forth in a strangely excited way, blurting out his + phrase two or three times and subsiding as abruptly as he had + commenced. Some crisis in his love-making, I imagined. Now the last + oven-bird launched into the air and let fall a little shower of + melody, and a whippoorwill took up his chant afar off. This should + have been the end; but a robin across the meadow thought otherwise, + and set at work as if determined to make a night of it. Mr. + Early-and-late, the robin's name ought to be. As I left the wood the + whippoorwill followed; coming nearer and nearer, till finally he + overpassed me and sang with all his might (while I tried in vain to + see him) from a tree or the wall, near the big buttonwood. He too is + an early riser, only he rises before nightfall instead of before + daylight." + + + + +INDEX + + + Blackbird, crow, 17; + red-winged, 183; + rusty, 216. + + Bluebird, 14, 72, 160, 184, 214, 217. + + Blue-gray gnatcatcher, 152. + + Bobolink, 16, 78. + + Bunting, bay-winged, 27, 174, 234; + snow, 190, 195; + towhee, 25, 39, 62, 178. + + Butcher-bird, 5, 11, 66, 208. + + + Cat-bird, 3, 72, 114. + + Cedar-bird, 26, 50, 126, 269. + + Chat, yellow-breasted, 69, 152, 153. + + Chewink, 25, 39, 62, 178. + + Chickadee, 27, 58, 158, 202, 215, 237, 291. + + Chimney swift, 23, 96, 272. + + Cowbird, 183. + + Creeper, brown, 20, 161, 205, 227, 262; + black-and-white, 21, 266, 279. + + Crow, common, 26, 78, 209; + fish, 154, 209. + + Cuckoo, black-billed, 18. + + + Finch, grass, 27, 174, 234; + purple, 27, 119, 173, 199, 217, 287; + pine, 206. + + Flicker, 25, 121, 232. + + Flycatcher, great-crested, 152; + least, 26, 36, 231; + phoebe, 26, 215, 230, 269; + wood pewee, 36, 231, 257; + yellow-bellied, 91. + + + Goldfinch, 16, 19, 60, 173, 188, 190, 193, 236. + + Grosbeak, cardinal, 27, 37, 152, 173; + pine, 197; + rose-breasted, 173, 292. + + + Humming-bird, ruby-throated, 21. + + + Indigo-bird, 177. + + + Jay, blue, 26, 65, 208, 264; + Canada, 257. + + + Kingbird, 26, 78, 231. + + Kingfisher, 26, 154. + + Kinglet, golden-crested, 21, 203; + ruby-crowned, 21, 235. + + + Lark, western meadow, 40, 41; + shore, 206. + + Linnet, 27, 119, 173, 199, 217, 287; + red-poll, 27, 190, 192. + + + Maryland yellow-throat, 9, 21, 85, 166, 266, 296. + + Mocking-bird, 27. + + + Night-hawk, 27, 183. + + Nuthatch, red-bellied, 25; + white-bellied, 24. + + + Oriole, Baltimore, 16, 181; + orchard, 154. + + Oven-bird, 21, 42, 86, 124, 136, 256, 283, 296. + + + Pewee, wood 36, 231, 257. + + Phoebe, 26, 215, 230, 269. + + + Red-poll linnet, 27, 190, 192. + + Redstart, 21, 86, 135. + + Robin, 15, 16, 35, 38, 111, 131, 160, 202, 229, 294, 298. + + + Sandpiper, spotted, 123. + + Scarlet tanager, 125, 153, 171, 257, 296, 298. + + Shrike, 5, 11, 66, 208. + + Small-billed water thrush, 21, 86, 266. + + Snow-bird, 90, 176, 208, 214, 221, 269. + + Snow bunting, 190, 195. + + Sparrow, chipping, 10, 16, 126, 173, 233, 289; + field, 27, 40, 173, 233; + fox-colored, 17, 173, 176, 215, 217, 218; + house (or "English"), 14, 17, 20, 22, 45, 110; + savanna, 27, 49, 78; + song, 15, 40, 173, 174, 200, 214, 217, 219; + swamp, 27; + tree, 27, 215; + white-throated, 16, 80, 207, 271. + + Swallow, barn, 23; + white-bellied, 23, 228. + + Swift, chimney, 23, 96, 272. + + + Tanager, scarlet, 125, 153, 171, 257, 296, 298. + + Thrush, brown, 16, 61, 117, 158, 184, 234, 297; + gray-cheeked (or Alice's), 17, 140, 141, 281; + golden-crowned, 21, 42, 86, 124, 136, 256, 283, 296; + hermit, 20, 71, 86, 140, 234, 258, 279; + olive-backed (or Swainson's), 20, 86, 88, 140, 281; + small-billed water, 21, 86, 266; + Wilson's (or veery), 25, 71, 138; + wood, 38, 112, 140, 258, 279. + + Titmouse, black-capped, 27, 58, 158, 202, 215, 237, 291; + tufted, 151. + + Towhee bunting, 25, 39, 62, 178. + + + Veery, 25, 71, 138. + + Vireo, (or greenlet), blue-headed, 167, 168; + red-eyed, 16, 167, 268; + solitary, 167, 168; + yellow-throated, 27, 167; + warbling, 16, 167, 168; + white-eyed, 40, 41, 69, 148, 167, 170, 286. + + + Warbler, bay-breasted, 85, 166; + Blackburnian, 86, 165, 265; + black-and-yellow, 85; + black-poll, 21, 85, 165; + black-throated blue, 21, 41, 86, 164, 267; + black-throated green, 21, 41, 86, 137, 164, 267, 290; + blue golden-winged, 42, 145, 164; + blue yellow-backed, 21, 86, 164, 268; + Canada, 21, 85, 266; + chestnut-sided, 42, 266, 271; + golden, 21, 164; + golden-crowned wagtail, 21, 42, 86, 124, 136; + mourning, 85; + Nashville, 98, 266; + pine-creeping, 166, 228, 237, 289; + prairie, 165; + summer yellow-bird, 21, 164; + worm-eating, 152; + yellow red-poll, 234; + yellow-rumped, 21, 42, 43, 86, 269. + + Waxwing, 26, 50, 126, 269. + + Whippoorwill, 183, 298. + + Woodcock, 27, 222. + + Woodpecker, downy, 25; + golden-winged, 25, 121, 232; + red-bellied, 152; + red-headed, 150, 205; + yellow-bellied, 8, 26, 271. + + Wren, great Carolina, 152; + winter, 88, 146, 225, 256, 272. + + + + * * * * * + + + +_Many books belong to sunshine, and should be read +out-of-doors_--WILLMOTT. + + * * * * * + +OUT-DOOR BOOKS + +_Selected from the Publications of_ + +HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, + +4 PARK ST., BOSTON; 11 EAST 17TH ST., NEW YORK. + + * * * * * + + +Birds and Poets, with other Papers. By JOHN BURROUGHS. 16mo, $1.50. + +CONTENTS: Birds and Poets; April; Touches of Nature; A Bird Medley; +Spring Poems; Our Rural Divinity; Emerson; The Flight of the Eagle (Walt +Whitman); Before Genius; Before Beauty. + +Mr. Burroughs, as a careful observer of nature, and one of the most +fascinating descriptive writers, is an author whose reputation will +constantly increase; for what he does in not only an addition to our +information, but to the good literature that we put on the shelf with +Thoreau and White of Selborne.--_Hartford Courant._ + + +Country By-Ways. By SARAH ORNE JEWETT. 18mo, $1.25. + +In free and flowing lines Miss Jewett has drawn exquisite pictures of +river and road and woodland, that fascinate by their happiness of +descriptive detail, and by the kinship to humanity which the author +finds in the flowers and trees and fields. Her treatment of the +individuality and life of nature is masterly, and the skill with which +she projects her figures on the canvas of her imagination is effective +and suggestive.--_Boston Transcript._ + + +Drift-Weed. Poems. By CELIA THAXTER. Small 4to, full gilt, $1.50 + +None of the poets of to-day have made so deep and sympathetic a study of +the shifting aspects of the sea as has Mrs. Thaxter, and none of them +have interpreted its meanings and analogies with half her grace and +subtlety.--_Boston Journal_. + + +Fresh Fields. By JOHN BURROUGHS. 16mo. $1.50. + +CONTENTS: Nature in England; English Woods--A Contrast; In Carlyle's +Country; A Hunt for the Nightingale; English and American Song Birds; +Impressions of some English Birds; In Wordsworth's Country; A Glimpse of +English Wildflowers; British Fertility; A Sunday in Cheyn Row; At Sea. + + +Locusts and Wild Honey. By JOHN BURROUGHS. 16mo, $1.50. + +CONTENTS: The Pastoral Bees; Sharp Eyes; Is it going to rain? Speckled +Trout; Birds and Birds; A Bed of Boughs; Birds'-Nesting; The Halcyon in +Canada. + + +My Summer in a Garden. By CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 16mo, $1.00. + +You cannot open his book without lighting on something fresh and +fragrant.--_New York Tribune._ + + +Nature. "Little Classics," Vol. XIV. 18mo, $1.00. + +CONTENTS: A Hunting Of the Deer, by Charles Dudley Warner; Dogs, by P. +G. Hamerton; In the Hemlocks, by John Burroughs; A Winter Walk, by H. D. +Thoreau; Birds and Bird Voices, by N. Hawthorne; The Fens, by C. +Kingsley; Ascent of the Matterhorn, by Edward Whymper; Ascent of Mount +Tyndall, by Clarence King; The Firmament, by John Ruskin. + + +Nature, together with Love, Friendship, Domestic Life, Success, +Greatness, and Immortality. By R. W. EMERSON. 32mo, 75 cents; _School +Edition_, 40 cents. + + +Pepacton. By JOHN BURROUGHS. 16mo, $1.50. + +CONTENTS: Pepacton; A Summer Voyage; Springs; An Idyl of the Honey-Bee; +Nature and the Poets; Notes by the Way; Foot-Paths; A Bunch of Herbs;. +Winter Pictures; A Camp in Maine; A Spring Relish. + + +Poems. By R. W. EMERSON. With Portrait. _Riverside Edition_. 12mo, gilt +top, $1.75. + +This volume contains nearly all the pieces included in the former +editions of "Poems" and "May-Day," beside other poems not hitherto +published. The collection includes a very large number of poems devoted +to nature and natural scenery. + + +Poems. By CELIA THAXTER. Small 4to, full gilt, $1.50. + +They are unique in many respects. Our bleak and rocky New England +sea-coast, all the wonders of atmospherical and sea-change, have, I +think, never before been so musically or tenderly sung about.--JOHN G. +WHITTIER. + + +Poetic Interpretation of Nature. By Principal J. C. SHAIRP. 16mo, gilt +top, $1.25. + +Full of learning and genuine appreciation of the poetry of +Nature.--_Portland Press._ + + +Seaside Studies in Natural History. By ALEXANDER AGASSIZ and ELIZABETH +C. AGASSIZ. Illustrated, 8vo, $3.00. + +The scene of these "Studies" is Massachusetts Bay. + + +Summer. Selections from the journals of H. D. THOREAU. With a Map of +Concord. 12mo, gilt top, $1.50. + +He was the one great observer of external nature whom America has yet +produced, a most subtle portrayer of his own personal thoughts and life, +a tribune of the people, a man who joined the strongest powers of +thought with an absolute love of liberty and a perfect fearlessness of +mind.--_The Independent_ (New York). + + +Wake-Robin. By John Burroughs. Revised and enlarged edition, +illustrated. 16mo, $1.50. + +CONTENTS: The Return of the Birds; In the Hemlocks; Adirondac; +Birds'-Nests; Spring at the Capital; Birch Browsings; The Bluebird; The +Invitation. + + +Winter Sunshine. By JOHN BURROUGHS. New Edition, revised and enlarged, +with frontispiece illustration. 16mo, $1.50. + +CONTENTS: Winter Sunshine; Exhilarations of the Road; The Snow Walkers; +The Fox; A March Chronicle; Autumn Tides; The Apple; An October Abroad. + +The minuteness of his observation, the keenness Of his perception, give +him a real originality, and his sketches have a delightful oddity, +vivacity, and freshness.--_The Nation_ (New York). + + +*** _For sale by all Booksellers. Sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of +price by the Publishers,_ + +HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., BOSTON, MASS. + + +The Gypsies. + +By CHARLES G. LELAND. + +Containing accounts of the Russian, Austrian, English, Welsh, and +American Gypsies; together with Papers on the Gypsies in the East, Gypsy +Names and Family Characteristics, the Origin of the Gypsies, a Gypsy +Magic Spell, Shelta, the Tinker's Talk; beside Gypsy Stories in Romany, +with Translations. In one volume, crown 8vo, red top, $2.00. + + * * * * * + +_From the New York Tribune._ + +Mr. Leland thoroughly understands the love of the gypsy for the free and +picturesque life out-of-doors; he feels it too; his pages glow with it; +his fragments of description borrow from it an irresistible charm. He +brings therefore to the writing of these fascinating chapters the rare +qualifications of an exquisite sympathy with his subject and a poetic +intuition of its inner character. But his enthusiasm is tempered by his +shrewdness, and saved from extravagance by his keen sense of humor. It +is impossible to read such a book without sharing the author's delight +in the queer and not over reputable but highly romantic company to which +it introduces us; and yet it is a great storehouse of serious and +recondite information. + +_From The Independent (New York)._ + +A volume beautiful for type and paper, fresh and full with the strange, +mysterious history of the race of which it treats. 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