THE FIRST BLUEBIRDS. 41 



I wound my way back towards Stony Brook, 

 passing through groves of small oaks, meadows 

 full of treacherous pools covered with brittle ice, 

 belts of whispering white-pines, apple orchards 

 and wood-roads leading up hill and down, end- 

 ing nowhere. Four miles of this wandering 

 brought me to Kendal Green station in Weston, 

 with a record of twenty crows, eighteen chicka- 

 dees, sixteen tree-sparrows and three blue jays. 

 Every farmhouse seemed to have its two or 

 three large elms, and its one, two or three noisy 

 chickadees. No English sparrows were to be 

 seen. The sleighing throughout the region 

 appeared to be good and the snow in the fields 

 was more than six inches deep on a level. The 

 aspect of the country was much more wintry 

 than it was nearer the coast, yet Lincoln is only 

 thirteen miles northwest of the State House. 

 For two weeks past the pussy willows had 

 been increasing in size and beauty. Some of 

 them had now reached their most attractive 

 state, for when they begin to push out their 

 yellow stamens they lose much of their peculiar 

 charm. Near Kendal Green I found a noble 

 family of these little Quakers. They were large, 

 and closely set on their stems. Within a foot 

 of the tip of one wand were thirty pussies, each 

 measuring from a half to three quarters of an 

 inch in length. Lincoln, judging by the tracks 



