A NOOK IN THE ALLEGHANIES 191 



house nor the people in the carriages be- 

 trayed the slightest curiosity as to my un- 

 conventional behavior. The bird, for its 

 part, minded me little more. It was en- 

 grossed with its dinner, and uttered no sound 

 beyond two or three tseeps, in which I could 

 recognize nothing distinctive. Its silence 

 was a disappointment ; and since I could not 

 waste the afternoon in watching a bird, no 

 matter how new and handsome, that would 

 do nothing but eat grass seed (or something 

 else), I finally took the road again and 

 passed on. I did not see it afterward, though, 

 under fresh accessions of curiosity, and for 

 the chance of hearing it sing, I went in 

 search of it twice. 



From a reference to Dr. Rives's Catalogue 

 of the Birds of the Virginias, which I had 

 brought with me, I learned, what I thought I 

 knew already, that the lark sparrow, abun- 

 dantly at home in the interior of North Amer- 

 ica, is merely an accidental visitor in Vir- 

 ginia. The only records cited by Dr. Rives 

 are those of two specimens, one captured, 

 the other seen, in and near Washington. It 

 seemed like a perversity of fate that I, 

 hardly more than an accidental visitor my- 



