A NOOK IN THE ALLEGHANIES 189 



made out, the vivid yellow of the inner bark 

 furnishing a clue which spared me the labor 

 of a formal "analysis." It was Xanihor- 

 rhiza apiifolia, shrub yellow-root, a name 

 long familiar to my eye from having been 

 read so many times in turning the leaves of 

 the Manual, on one hunt and another. With 

 a new song and a new flowering plant, the 

 mountain road had used me pretty well, after 

 all my neglect of it. 



My one new bird at Pulaski and the 

 only one seen in Virginia was stumbled 

 upon in a grassy field on the farther border 

 of the town. I had set out to spend an hour 

 or two in a small wood beyond the brickyard, 

 and was cutting the corner of a field by a 

 footpath, still feeling myself in the city, and 

 not yet on the alert, when a bird flew up 

 before me, crossed the street, and dropped 

 on the other side of the wall. Half seen as 

 it was, its appearance suggested nothing in 

 particular ; but it seemed not to be an Eng- 

 lish sparrow, too common here, as it is 

 getting to be everywhere, and of course it 

 might be worth attention. It is one capital 

 advantage of being away from home that we 

 take additional encouragement to investigate 



