8 The Wilson Bulletin.— No. 42. 



path past it up through an avenue of ancient hemlocks to 

 the top of the hill. Here and in the more open slope be- 

 yond, thrushes, White-throats, and White-crowns, love to 

 linger during migration, and the Hooded Warbler builds 

 somewhere near. Further on is still another pond, — willow 

 ramparted. Sitting under these trees one July day to escape 

 a shower, we looked down below and saw six Phoebes sit- 

 ting in a solemn row on a branch with a seventh near en- 

 gaged in serving lunch. The whole family at once and at 

 dinner! You remember what Thoreau said.'' "What you 

 seek in vain for half your life, one day you come full upon 

 all the family at dinner." Those words have come to me 

 again and again. I well recall a brief glimpse of a Rose- 

 breasted Grosbeak a mile and a half from here; a peculiar 

 favor to have seen it we then though, but the next spring 

 we could go down in our valley any time during a fort-night 

 and hear a flock of them singing. 



Last winter it came time for us to take our weekly Ger- 

 man lesson, but the snow fell thickly, swiftly, almost in 

 masses, and while we waited dismayed at the prospect of 

 wading through it, behold! the Herr Prediger beaming in 

 upon us saying he thought he would practice the Golden 

 Rule — surely a noble idea — ,and as we stumbled along in a 

 strange tongue, some one idly glanced out of the window 

 and lo I the snow had ceased and six Evening Grosbeaks 

 were feasting upon a young maple directly in front of the 

 house upon the street. They remained an hour perhaps, 

 our first and only view of them, and not one of the ten or 

 twelve people who passed saw them. 



Last spring an Oven-bird remained near the house for 

 several days quite fearlessly, while White-throats have 

 foraged at our very door. In fact, in our lot alone — less than 

 half an acre — sixty different species have been identified, 

 eighty-five species have been seen in the ravine, while un- 

 doubtedly twenty-five species nest there. 



Most of our acquaintances view us with amused tolerance 

 at the best, and no doubt regard our pastime as a mild 



