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fields were there any native sparrows. It is true, 

 goldfinches nested in the locust-trees by the 

 house, but they kept so closely to the tree-tops, 

 and fed in such far-off, weedy tangles, that they 

 seemed much more like strangers than door-yard 

 companions. Even the vireos found themselves 

 too far from water, and usually stayed in the trees 

 along the river shore. 



The pretty chewink seemed to me quite out of 

 place in a stone-fence, but was evidently at home, 

 and the little trickling brook by the roadside that 

 scarcely dampened the ground met all its needs. 

 It che-winked as cheerily when threading the 

 mazes of the loose-piled rocks as ever it did in 

 the damp runways among the skunk cabbages, 

 and, unlike the same bird at home, was quite in- 

 different to our near approach ; and very tame, 

 too, were the dear old bluebirds, that have gen- 

 erally forsaken many a former haunt. Very nat- 

 urally, in accordance .with my observations for 

 years, they were to-day closely associated with the 

 king-birds, and proved as efficient fly-catchers. 



It may be a bit perverse on my part, but to 

 myself the ceaseless chirping of the crickets was 

 really a more entertaining sound than the song of 

 any bird. It was so thoroughly homelike, and 

 recalled so vividly the lazy hours spent in the 

 angles of the old worm fences in the lower coun- 

 try. I closed my eyes for a few moments in the sha- 

 dow of the stone-wall here to let the crickets sing 



