A BIRD-GAZER'S PUZZLES 175 



solved, than I began to meditate, with something 

 less of satisfaction, upon the letter I had written 

 the evening before. I thought, too, of the many 

 more or less foolish letters that I had myself re- 

 ceived (and sometimes smiled at, I fear) in the 

 past twenty years, letters in which eager search- 

 ers after ornithological knowledge had confided 

 to me marvelous accounts of the wonders they 

 had seen afield, and by an unhappy fate could 

 find no description of when they returned to the 

 study. Not many of these correspondents, as well 

 as I could now remember, had ever mistaken a 

 titmouse for a warbler ! I must dispatch a post- 

 script to my letter by the earliest mail. And so 

 I did, ostensibly, of course, to save my friend 

 the trouble of a reply, but really to prove to her 

 that, though I was capable of blundering, I was 

 also capable of a second thought. 



And now, having made my confession, I am 

 bound to add that some who may laugh at me 

 would possibly have been little wiser than I, had 

 they stood in my shoes ; for the verdin does not 

 look the least in the world like anything that 

 goes by the name of titmouse or chickadee up in 

 our Northern country. I hope to see more of it, 

 and especially to hear its song, which is said to 

 be of surprising volume. 



Really (and this is why I have told this not 



