A NOOK IN THE ALLEGHANIES 149 



search. So I seem to remember reasoning 

 with myself ; but perhaps a thought of the 

 noonday luncheon had something to do with 

 my temporizing mood. 



In any case no harm came of it. The 

 singer was at home for the season, and the 

 very next morning I went up the hill and 

 made sure of him: a Bewick's wren, as I 

 had guessed. I heard him there on sundry 

 occasions afterward. Sometimes he sang 

 one tune, sometimes another. The song 

 heard on the first day, and most frequently, 

 perhaps, at other times, consisted of a pro- 

 longed indrawn whistle, followed by a trill 

 or jumble of notes (not many birds trill, 

 I suppose, in the technical sense of that 

 word), as if the fellow had picked up his 

 music from two masters, a Bachman finch 

 and a song sparrow. It soon transpired, 

 greatly to my satisfaction, that this was one 

 of the characteristic songsters of the town. 

 One bird sang daily not far from my win- 

 dow (the first time I heard him I ran out in 

 haste, looking for some new sparrow, and 

 only came to my senses when halfway across 

 the lawn), and I never walked far in the 

 town (the city, I ought in civility to say) 



