JUNE IN FRANCONIA. 15 
of the older ornithologists. In fact, it was 
first described, — by Mr. Cassin, — in 1851, 
from a specimen taken, nine years before, 
near Philadelphia; and its nest remained 
unknown for more than thirty years longer, 
the first one having been discovered, appar- 
ently in Canada, in 1884.1 
Day after day, the bare, sharp crest of 
Mount Lafayette silently invited my feet. 
Then came a bright, favorable morning, and 
I set out. I would go alone on this my first 
pilgrimage to the noble peak, at which, al- 
ways from too far off, I had gazed longingly 
for ten summers. It is not inconsistent 
with a proper regard for one’s fellows, I 
trust, to enjoy now and then being without 
their society. It is good, sometimes, for a 
man to be alone, — especially on a mountain- 
top, and more especially ata first visit. The 
trip to the summit was some seven or eight 
miles in length, and an almost continual as- 
cent, without a dull step in the whole dis- 
tance. The Tennessee warbler was sing- 
ing; but perhaps the pleasantest incident of 
the walk to the Profile House —in front of 
which the mountain footpath is taken — was 
1 K. E. T. Seton, in The Auk, vol. ii. p. 305. 
