56 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 



were but two eggs in it. Several times I had caught 

 some of the httle birds — there were nearly twenty, 

 counting the old ones. I thouglit what a woods full of 

 partridges Ave should have the next year, but in the fall, 

 after the leaves fell, two pot hunters, with guns and 

 bird dogs, visited the place, and before leaving they 

 killed the entire brood of these pretty creatures. 

 Every man who loves the fields and woods ought 

 earnestly to protest against a further slaughter of 

 grouse and quail in our nearly cleared country. 



Another favorite locality was yet to be explored. 

 On the west side of this enchanted woods, a shaded 

 highway separates it from a meadow. For some cause 

 the arbutus still clings to this frontier. Here we found 

 many patches of it in bud and blossom, and with it 

 quantities of Gaultheria and Mitchella, with their shin- 

 ing green leaves decorated with red berries. Flowers 

 and berries were all uncovered, and in plain sight of 

 any who might pass by. It seemed a little curious that 

 they had not been disturbed, but it is fortunate for 

 some of us that travelers do not always see the most 

 attractive objects along the way. Perhaps those wlio 

 have been along this road were actuated by the same 

 feehngs that caused us to leave most of these pretty 

 flowers to sweeten the air about them. A pair of 

 brown thrashers came skulking across the road, and 

 perching on an old stump fence opposite, began scold- 

 ing in tones so much resembling those of the tree toads. 

 They will not sing until some days later, when the trees 

 are in fuller leaf. 



