18 TRAMPS WITH AN ENTHUSIAST. 



away a golden-winged woodpecker who took the 

 liberty of alighting on a neighboring dead tree- 

 trunk. Down upon him like a small tornado 

 came the flycatcher instantly, expecting, appar- 

 ently, to annihilate him. But the big, clumsy 

 woodpecker merely slid one side a little, to avoid 

 the onslaught, and calmly went on dressing his 

 feathers as if no small flycatcher existed. This 

 indifference did not please the olive-sided, but 

 he alighted on a branch below and bided his 

 time ; it came soon, when the golden-wing took 

 flight, and he came down upon him like a king- 

 bird on a crow. I heard the snap of the wood- 

 pecker's beak as he passed into the thick woods, 

 but nobody was hurt, and the flycatcher re- 

 turned to his perch. 



When we had rested a little after our mad 

 rush through the woods, we found that the hours 

 were slipping away, and we must go. Passing 

 down the road at the edge of the woods, we were 

 about to cross a tiny brook, when our eyes fell 

 upon a distinguished personage at his bath. He 

 was a rose-breasted grosbeak, and we instantly 

 stopped to see him. He did not linger, but gave 

 himself a thorough splashing, and flew at once 

 to a tree, where he began dressing his plumage 

 in frantic haste, as if he knew he was a " shin- 

 ing mark " for man and beast. He stayed half 

 a minute on one branch, jerked a few feathers 



