100 FIVE DAYS ON MOUNT MANSFIELD. 
imposed upon, simply because he was small? 
The thrush, meantime, disdaining to defend 
himself, would only stop now and then to 
sing, as if to show to the world (every crea- 
ture is the centre of a world) that such an 
insect persecution could never ruffle his 
spirit. Birds are to be commiserated, per- 
haps, on having such an excess of what we 
eall human nature; but the misfortune cer- 
tainly renders them the more interesting to 
us, who see our more amiable weaknesses so 
often reflected in their behavior. 
For the sympathetic observer every kind 
of bird has its own temperament. On one 
of my jaunts down this Mount Mansfield 
road I happened to espy a Canada jay in a 
thick spruce. He was on one of the lower 
branches, but pretty soon began mounting 
the tree, keeping near the bole and going up 
limb by limb in absolute silence, exactly in 
the manner of our common blue jay. I was 
glad to see him, but more desirous to hear 
his voice, the loud, harsh scream with which 
the books eredit him, and which, @ priori, 
I should have little hesitation in ascribing to 
any member of his tribe. I waited till I 
grew impatient. Then I started hastily to- : 
