154 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



his full-feathered wing was not yet heard in the 

 yellowing grove. Bob White was still too small, 

 as well as too hard to see, and the hare had not 

 yet left the thickets and made his form in the 

 toadflax or the reddening dewberry-bushes of the 

 open. Nor was the whizzing wing of the wild 

 duck yet seen along the shore, nor the scaipe 

 of the snipe yet heard in the meadow, nor the 

 ruffed grouse yet ready in the tangled brake. 

 This plover was known inland for only about 

 three or four weeks of the year. The fringed 

 gentian had not yet closed its blue, sorrel con- 

 tinued to tinge the slopes, and the vervain was 

 fading but little, when he came to visit the 

 freshly-plowed fields of autumn. He seemed to 

 come from the coast, for it was only during heavy 

 easterly storms that he came in any numbers. 

 Up in the garret of the old farm-house, among 

 the spinning-wheels and the wasps, we used to 

 flatten our noses against the dusty window-panes 

 where the rain was driving hard, and watch the 

 coming of the birds. 



High in air they came at first, sometimes in 

 crescent lines with the horns turned forward, 

 sometimes in crescents with the horns turned 



