BIRDS AND BATTLEFIELDS. 187 



and especially up again, for drinking and bath- 

 ing purposes. Having no elevators, they find 

 it too irksome and inconvenient to live on the 

 upper story of a mountain flat. At all events, 

 there were many more feathered folk in the 

 valley than on the mountain. 



In the neighborhood of the famous " battle 

 in the clouds," where General Hooker made 

 his gallant charge, I had an agreeable surprise. 

 Glancing up into the foliage of a tall tree, my 

 eye caught the glint of a patch of brilliant red 

 among the leaves. What could it be ? I was 

 puzzled for a moment. It really looked like a 

 blood-stain, and for a moment the place seemed 

 a little uncanny. But my opera glass soon told 

 me that the gleaming spot was the carmine 

 shield worn by the rose-breasted grossbeak, of 

 which I had accidentally caught sight through 

 an aperture of the leaves. Presently this bril- 

 liant bird's mate appeared on the scene, and 

 together they swung gracefully down the ac- 

 clivity. I warrant you that no officer of the 

 army in 1863 Avas more gorgeously accoutered 

 than that grossbeak. This was the 8th of 

 May, and these feathered travelers were en 

 route for their summer home in the North. 



Along the foot of the mountain, on the 

 bushy steeps and the thicket-fringed banks of 



