210 SOME TENNESSEE BIRD NOTES. 



seen to it that the scale inclined northward. 

 To this end I have made as much as possible 

 of the absence of robins, song sparrows, and 

 vesper sparrows, and of the comparative 

 dearth of swallows ; but of course the loyal 

 Tennessean is in no want of a ready answer. 

 Robins, song sparrows, vesper sparrows, and 

 swallows are not absent, except as breeding 

 birds. He has them all in their season,^ 

 and probably hears them sing. On the 

 whole, then, he may fairly retort, he has 

 considerably the advantage of us Yankees : 

 he sees our birds on their passage, and 

 drinks his fill of their music before we have 

 caught the first spring notes ; while we, on 

 the other hand, see nothing of his distinc- 

 tively southern birds unless we come South 

 for the purpose. Well, they are worth the 

 journey. Bachman's finch alone — yes, the 

 one dingy, shabbily clad little genius by 

 the Chickamauga well — might almost have 

 repaid me for my thousand miles on the rail. 



It was a strange mingling of sensations 

 that possessed me in Chattanooga. The 

 city itself was like other cities of its age 



1 See Dr. Fox's list. 



