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THE ADIRONDACKS 



"TTTHEN" I went to the Adirondacks, which was 

 ^^ in the summer of 1863, I was in the first 

 flush of my ornithological studies, and was curious, 

 above all else, to know what birds I should find in 

 these solitudes, — what new ones, and what ones 

 already known to me. 



In visiting vast, primitive, far-off* woods one 

 naturally expects to find something rare and pre- 

 cious, or something entirely new, but it commonly 

 happens that one is disappointed. Thoreau made 

 three excursions into the Maine woods, and, though 

 he started the moose and caribou, had nothing more 

 novel to report by way of bird notes than the songs 

 of the wood thrush and the pewee. This was about 

 my own experience in the Adirondacks. The birds 

 for the most part prefer the vicinity of settlements 

 and clearings, and it was at such places that I saw 

 the greatest number and variety. 



At the clearing of an old hunter and pioneer by 

 the name of Hewett, where we paused a couple of 

 days on first entering the woods, I saw many old 

 friends and made some new acquaintances. The 

 snowbird was very abundant here, as it had been 



