6o NATURE STUDY. 



of evening in the Franconia Notch is beyond all words — nay, 

 is beyond human ability to appreciate, There are higher 

 mountains, deeper ravines, more precipitous -cliffs in the 

 world, but nowhere in my wanderings such lights as the 

 departing sun leaves on the White Hills of New Hamp- 

 shire. Though one has seen them a thousand times, he 

 sees them each evening with new and sober delight, some 

 times rising into awe." — Amojig- the Clouds. 



Willard N. Clute, writes in the Fern Bulletin : The deal- 

 ers in boquets do a lively business in New Orleans in win- 

 ter, for flowers are cheap and easily grown. The greenery 

 that is mixed with the flowers, however, is not so readily 

 produced it would seem, for a northern fern, no other than 

 our common wood fern \Nepln'odium sphiulosum intermed- 

 ium^^ is the principal thing used. Since this fern is not 

 known to grow south of Tennessee, I had the curiosity to 

 a florist and make inquiry regarding it, and was informed 

 that the fronds are all from the New England States, being 

 sent down by the millions in Autumn and kept in cold stor- 

 age until wanted. Thus does bleak New England contri- 

 bute to the enjoyment of a southern winter. 



Dana W. Sweet, writing to the Journal of the Maine Or- 

 nithological Society, records an interesting incident of var- 

 iation in the song of the Least Flycatcher. 



' 'Recently while passing through the orchard at my home, 

 where the least flycatchers are plentiful and have nests, I 

 heard a sweet, pretty song in one of the apple trees. This 

 seemed to be a bird that I had never heard before. I walked 

 up quietly and as I caught sight of it, it flew upwards and 

 began to sing an entirely different song, which sounded to 

 me very much like the Indigo Bunting. After flying wild- 

 ly about high in the air, it flew downward, and I could dis- 

 tinguish the notes chebec, cliebec, chebec, uttered in quick 

 succession. As it lighted in a tree near me I saw that it 

 was a Least Flycatcher. This occurred at dusk. 



