26 JUNE IN FRANCONIA. 
But the principal interest of this my sec- 
ond ascent of Mount Lafayette was to be 
not botanical, but ornithological. We had 
seen nothing noteworthy on the way up (1 
was not alone this time, though I have so 
far been rude enough to ignore my compan- 
ion); but while at the Eagle Lakes, on our 
return, we had an experience that threw me 
Into a nine days’ fever. The other man — 
one of the botanists of last year’s crew — 
was engaged in collecting viburnum speci- 
mens, when all at once I caught sight of 
something red in a dead spruce on the moun- 
tain-side just across the tiny lake. I leveled 
my glass, and saw with perfect distinctness, 
as I thought, two pine grosbeaks in bright 
male costume, — birds I had never seen be- 
fore except in winter. Presently a third . 
one, in dull plumage, came into view, hav- 
ing been hidden till now behind the bole. 
The trio remained in sight for some time, 
and then dropped into the living spruces 
underneath, and disappeared. I lingered 
about, while my companion and the black 
flies were busy, and was on the point of 
turning away for good, when up flew two 
red birds and alighted in a tree close by the 
