SPKING AT THE CAPITAL 137 



being inaugurated! Some puppies, snugly nestled 

 in the cavity of an old hollow tree, he said, be- 

 longed to a wild dog. I imagine I saw the ' wild 

 dog,' on the other side of Rock Creek, in a great 

 state of grief and trepidation, running up and down, 

 crying and yelping, and looking wistfully over the 

 Bwollen flood, which the poor thing had not the 

 -courage to brave. This day, for the first time, I 

 heard the song of the Canada sparrow, a soft, sweet 

 note, almost running into a warble. Saw a small, 

 black, velvety butterfly with a yellow border to its 

 wings. Under a warm bank found two flowers of 

 the houstonia in bloom. Saw frogs' spawn near 

 Piny Branch, and heard the hyla." 



Among the first birds that make their appear- 

 ance in Washington is the crow blackbird. He may 

 come any time after the 1st of IMarch. The birds 

 congregate in large fiocks, and frequent groves and 

 parks,' alternately swarming in the treetops and fill- 

 ing the air with their sharp jangle, and alighting 

 on the ground in quest of food, their polished coats 

 glistening in the sun from very blackness as they 

 walk about. There is evidently some music in the 

 soul of this bird at this season, though he makes 

 a sad failure in getting it out. His voice always 

 sounds as if he were laboring under a severe attack 

 of influenza, though a large flock of them, heard at 

 a distance on a bright afternoon of early spring, 

 produce an efi'ect not unpleasing. The air is filled 

 with crackling, splintering, spurting, semi-musical 

 sounds, which are like pepper and salt to the ear. 



