136 WAKE-ROBIN 



started out here and there, and flew across the little 

 bends and points. Among some pines just beyond 

 the boundary, saw a number of American gold- 

 finches, in their gray winter dress, pecking the pine- 

 cones. A golden-crowned kinglet was there also, a 

 little tuft of gray feathers, hopping about as restless 

 as a spirit. Had the old pine-trees food delicate 

 enough for him also? Farther on, in some low 

 open woods, saw many sparrows, — the fox, white- 

 throated, white-crowned, the Canada, the song, the 

 swamp, — all herding together along the warm and 

 sheltered borders. To my surprise, saw a chewink 

 also, and the yellow-rumped warbler. The purple 

 finch was there likewise, and the Carolina wren and 

 brown creeper. In the higher, colder woods not a 

 bird was to be seen. Returning, near sunset, across 

 the eastern slope of a hill which overlooked the 

 city, was delighted to see a number of grass finches 

 or vesper sparrows, — birds which will be forever 

 associated in my mind with my father's sheep pas- 

 tures. They ran before me, now flitting a pace or 

 two, now skulking in the low stubble, just as I had 

 observed them when a boy." 



A month later, March 4th, is this note : — 

 "After the second memorable inauguration of 

 President Lincoln, took my first trip of the season. 

 The afternoon was very clear and warm, — real ver- 

 nal sunshine at last, though the wind roared like a 

 lion over the woods. It seemed novel enough to 

 find within two miles of the White House a simple 

 woodsman chopping away as if no President- was 



