6 A WORD AT THE START. 



ow and sing and show themselves for your benefit. If 

 you want to enjoy them, you must go to their haunts ; 

 and once there, if you are really fond of birds, you will 

 never regret it. There are neglected, tangled, briery 

 nooks in every neighborhood that will repay frequent 

 visits. There some of the best bird-music is to be heard. 

 In an old field I know of, too barren to be worth cultivat- 

 ing, and unpleasantly strong with the odors of Jamestown 

 weed, there is every summer a whole colony of Carolina 

 wrens, and their songs are not excelled by any of our 

 birds, except certain thrushes and the rose-breasted gros- 

 beak. In this same field, too, I am sure of finding scores 

 of garter-snakes, and the pretty creatures add a charm to 

 the place. Finally, nowhere else are there so many 

 gorgeously-colored dragon-flies as about this same neg- 

 lected, weed - grown field. By very many, walks are 

 thought to be enjoyable only in what is commonly called 

 pleasant weather. What constitutes a pleasant day, as 

 distinguished from an unpleasant one, is not very clear. 

 If I have seen something new, that day is pleasant, how- 

 ever the thermometer registers or the winds blow. Surely, 

 too, after a month of sunny days, a steady, pouring rain 

 is delicious, not to look at merely, but to be about in it. 

 It is charm enough to tempt one out to see how the 

 birds and mice and squirrels, and the snakes, frogs, and 

 insects pass their time when it rains. The cunning you 

 will see displayed by them will compensate for the soak- 

 ing you may get. 



If the weather be cold, walk fast and see fast, and, if 

 you have well-trained eyes, no feeling of cold will annoy 

 you ; unless, indeed, you are needlessly bundled up, and 

 do nothing but wonder where the thermometer ranges. 

 A good rule for one who walks in winter is, to forget 

 that there are such things as thermometers, and never to 



