1917 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Go 



tioii — but so sure was I tlic mere sight of this wood must kiudle in everyone long- 

 ings ardent as my own, that I got together a picnic party to visit the place. The 

 approach by the gravel road was admitted on all sides to be lovely, but just as we 

 reached the outposts of beech and maple, our foremost team began to kick and 

 ])lunge; we were ambushed, and next moment all our cavalry was thrown into con- 

 fusion and we were hotly engaged in hand conflict with hordes of fierce mosquitoes. 

 Further in, as I knew, the swamp was even denser; where horses were too restive to 

 be tethered, it was impossible for bipeds (at least the petticoated variety) to 

 bivouac in any comfort; so we beat a hasty retreat to the upland pasture. Here 

 a strong wind, coming to our support, checked the advance of the foe; and here, 

 much abashed, in the lee of a snake fence, we rallied our forces and sat down to an 

 al fresco banquet. 



A diner at Delmonico's would have turned up the nose at our bucolic bill of 

 fare; but nature, kind indeed to all her cliildren, added, in the keenest of outdoor 

 appetites, a relish to this plain and homely food not a city in the world could 

 supply; she even provided us, in true up-to-date style, with refreshing interludes 

 of music; a rare treat, in the form of a series of solo selections. For without being 

 closely attentive we were yet, throughout the repast, fully alive to what seemed tlie 

 clear carol of a robin. 



The song came from the leafy gable of a Balm of Gilead beside the road; the 

 same hidden turret, the same sweet notes I -had marked the June before. The 

 very persistence of the song at last caught and held the attention of us all; closely 

 studied it was certainly no robin's, being sweeter in quality and of far greater 

 range; soft as the fluting of a bluebird, yet full and rich (almost) in tone as an 

 oriole's, wonderfully varied, still more wonderfully sustained, came the notes of the 

 singer, a silvery shower of sound. We managed, two of us, to draw close enough to 

 note the bird's outline as he sat on a spray near the top of the tree; then, at 

 length, he paused in his song and flew; as the wings were spread in his first move- 

 ment we could see a streak of white across them. 



It was indeed the Eose-breasted Grosbeak; a week or two later I had an 

 opportunity of studying him at leisure through field-glasses as he sat on this liis 

 favorite perch — singing (doubtless) to a mate on the nest. The black of the head 

 and throat, the white of the lower body, and in delicious contrast a splash of rich 

 crimson on the upper breast, left no doubt of his identity, even had the vaulted 

 boldness of his bill not been in evidence. Mr. Schuyler Matthews contends that 

 the bird owes his power as a songster — a certain resonance and fulness of tone, 

 perhaps — in some measure to the shape of his beak; nor need the contention be 

 thought fanciful: the English bullfinch, for one, might be cited in support. 



Some weeks later, when halcyon days had really come to stay, and I ventured 

 to suggest to some of my friends that we forgather again at the Wood of Desire, 

 tliey one and all refused. In their memory the song of the Grosbeak wakened no 

 echo, but the winged darts of Liliputian hosts renewed all their venom, and my 

 rambles since Victoria Day have been companionless. 



If I were put in the witness box and cross-examined by some matter-of-fact 

 plaintiff's counsel, many startling admissions would doubtless be made to appear; 

 as, that the round trip involves no less than 15 miles of tramping; that often I 

 liavc been so parched with thirst as to lie down and lap, at the girdling moat, water 

 that was tepid and tasted of cows ; that once, on venturing a few rods in towards 

 an enticing nook, the gravel road I had left vanished (by some sinister necromancy) 

 as oompletoly as the highway out of which Childe Eoland turned aside in his quest 

 of the Dark Tower, and I was left for over an hour to wade knee deep and flounder 

 . 5 E.s. 



