IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. 83 



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, Peverl}^, 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 an- 

 cients : they examined a bird's entrails ; we lis- 

 ten 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 alhicollis 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 blos- 

 som, as was also the dark purple species, and 

 the hobble-bush showed its broad white cymes 

 in all directions. Here and there was the mod- 

 est little spring beauty (^Claytonia Carolini- 

 ana^, 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 (^Tlarella cordifolia) was in 

 flower likewise, and the spur which is cut off 



