A BIRD-GAZER'S PUZZLES 173 



bird having moved on, as birds do, being pro- 

 vided with wings for that very purpose, and by 

 and by, walking at a venture round one clump 

 of bushes after another, I came again upon the 

 stranger, who, it should be said, was of a pecul- 

 iarly unsuspicious disposition, and this time was 

 swallowing piecemeal what seemed to my New 

 England mind a very unseasonable caterpillar. 

 And now I made a further discovery : the shoul- 

 der of the bird's wing was edged with a line of 

 pretty bright red, of a shade between chestnut 

 and carmine ! Surely, it was only a matter of 

 surviving to reach the hotel and the mystery 

 would be solved. Calaveras or what not, it was 

 impossible that there should be two warblers 

 marked in this singular manner. 



Well, I got back to my room, and sure enough, 

 not only were there not two warblers thus marked, 

 there was not even one. Calaveras was nothing 

 to the purpose. My inspiration must have come 

 from the wrong place. At any rate, it was un- 

 profitable for instruction. It was n't far to go, 

 you may say, but I was at my wits' end. 



That evening I had occasion to answer a letter 

 from an eminent ornithologist, who has herself 

 worked much in the Southwest, and besides has 

 at her elbow the best of American bird collec- 

 tions. She would be able to help me out of my 



