156 SPRING AT THE CAPITAL. 



when large quantities of them are shot or trapued, 

 and exposed for sale in the market. During a heavy 

 snow I have seen numbers of them feeding upon tha 

 seeds of various weedy growths in a large market- 

 garden well into town.) " Pressing on, the walk be- 

 came exhilarating. Followed a little brook, the east- 

 ern branch of the Tiber, lined with bushes and a rank 

 growth of green brier. S^mrrows started out here 

 Bnd there and flew across the little bends and points. 

 Among some pines just beyond the boundary, saw a 

 number of American goldfinches, 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 ? Far- 

 ther on, in some low open woods, saw many sparrowSj 

 "—the fox, white-throated, white-crowned, the Can- 

 ada, the song, the swamp, — all herding together 

 along the warm and sheltered borders. To my sur- 

 prise saw a cheewink 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, 

 aear sunset, across the eastern slope of a hill which 

 overlooked the city, was delighted to see a number 

 vf grass-finches or vesper sparrows ( Fringilla gram 

 inea), — birds which will be forever associated in my 

 mind with my father's sheep pastures. They ran 

 oefore me, now flitting a pace or two, now skulking 

 m the low stubble, just as I had observed them whou 

 ft boy." 



