302 In Touch with Nature. 



Shout your merriest, ornithologists, and declare 

 these birds are not Canadian. Of course I know 

 it, but there is a bit of Canada south of the State- 

 line of New Jersey, which possibly you did not 

 know ; and what concerns me only is that my 

 winter friends are from the North country, and 

 some of them very probably did cross the great 

 lakes in coming here. What matters it? They 

 are here, and being a law unto myself, I shall call 

 them " Canadians." The others are here ; but 

 better, because more fixed in their ways, are the 

 white-throats. There is a trace of uncertainty in 

 all the rest ; but who ever failed to find the white- 

 throats at home ? All the year round we have 

 vesper-sparrows in the lane field, and from early 

 October to May the white-throats in the thickets. 

 Perhaps minnows in the brooks and frogs in the 

 marsh are as much a fixture, but it is only perhaps. 



To-day I heard their song, though there was 

 overmuch clatter, and how completely the song 

 and the season go hand in hand ! To us, un- 

 travelled natives, though the whole world was 

 green and the heat of the tropics prevailed, the 

 song of the white-throat would be crisp with frost. 



