136 SCRAPING ACQUAINTANCE. 



like of which would not be found in the cabi- 

 net before mentioned, I went thither that very- 

 evening. Alas, my silly fears ! there stood the 

 little beauty's exact counterpart, labeled Seto- 

 phaga ruticilla, the American redstart, — a bird 

 which the manual assured me was very common 

 in my neighborhood. 



But it was not my eyes only that were 

 opened, my ears also were touched. It was as 

 if all the birds had heretofore been silent, and 

 now, under some sudden impulse, had broken 

 out in universal concert. What a glorious 

 chorus it was ; and every voice a stranger ! 

 For a week or more I was puzzled by a song 

 which I heard without fail whenever I went 

 into the woods, but the author of which I could 

 never set eyes on, — a song so exceptionally 

 loud and shrill, and marked by such a vehe- 

 ment crescendo, that, even to my new-found 

 ears, it stood out from the general medley a 

 thing by itself. Many times I struck into the 

 woods in the direction whence it came, but 

 without getting so much as a flying glimpse 

 of the musician. Very mysterious, surely ! 

 Finally, by accident I believe, I caught the fel- 

 low in the very act of singing, as he stood on 

 a dead pine-limb; and a few minutes later he 

 was on the ground, walking about (not hop- 

 ping) with the primmest possible gait, — a 



