(Brass is <5reen 



I took to the fields, and finding only crickets equal 

 to the occasion, kept on, and soon plunged into a 

 ferny thicket with three big oaks and a bubbling 

 spring. Here the thermometer showed but 88, 

 so I had found a cool spot and concluded to tarry. 

 It was all very well to let enthusiasm suggest ex- 

 amining the animal life of a field at noon, but to 

 carry out such suggestions does not pay for the 

 danger involved. It was hot enough to melt your 

 brain, and I shall never forget the languid look of 

 one poor toad that by some cause had been ousted 

 from his day-time retreat and found it too hot to 

 go hunt up another. That toad would not hop, 

 but let me roll him over with the toe of my shoe. 

 The rattling creak of the crickets sounded pre- 

 cisely like the crisp crackling of dry twigs in a fire. 

 What is to be known of open fields at mid-day in 

 summer, let others tell me. 



But the spring, oaks, green grass, and ferns: 

 these told a different story. Of course the birds 

 objected to my intrusion, but soon were reconciled. 

 I sat down and made no demonstrations that 

 would excite alarm. Curiosity, common to birds 

 as man, was soon the uppermost feeling, and I 

 was entertained from the start by a cat-bird, a 

 red-eyed vireo, a chewink, a yellow-breasted chat 

 and a pair of song-sparrows. Curiosity was upper- 

 most in them all, and it was quite evident they 

 were not accustomed to a permanent intruder. I 

 will not venture to say how near the cat-bird came, 

 8 113 



