ABOVE THE BIKDS 



IN the course of my seven days at the summit of 

 Mount Washington I listed six species of birds. 

 A few snowbirds three or four were to be 

 found almost always in the neighborhood of the 

 stables ; a myrtle warbler was seen on the climb 

 up the cone from the Lakes of the Clouds; 

 twice I heard a goldfinch passing somewhere 

 overhead ; a sharp-shinned hawk, as I took it to 

 be, showed itself one day, none too clearly, flying 

 through the mist ; and the next afternoon, as I 

 sat in the rear of the old Tip-Top House waiting 

 for the glories of the sunset, a sparrow hawk 

 shot past me so near as to display not only his 

 rusty tail, but the black bands on the side of his 

 neck. Here are five species. The sixth was one 

 that, rightly or wrongly, I should not have ex- 

 pected to find in so treeless a place. I speak of 

 the red-breasted (or Canadian) nuthatch. On 

 two mornings, as all hands were out upon the 

 platform at sunrise, we heard the characteristic 

 nasal calls of this northern forester, and saw two 

 birds scrambling about the roofs of the buildings ; 

 and more than once at other times I noticed one 



