THE COMING OF THE BIRDS. 55 



the evergreen fronds of four species of ferns 

 (including asplenium ebeneum) nodded in the 

 breeze. Upon the sunny banks partridge ber- 

 ries and the clustered jewels of the false 

 solomon's-seal gleamed among green leaves and 

 brown pine needles. Three kinds of pyrola, 

 rattlesnake-plantain, pipsissewa, buttercup, and 

 three club mosses decorated the steep slopes. 

 On a warm gray face of ledge above, a generous 

 growth of bearberry spread its lustrous green 

 and russet leaves to the sky, and close by the 

 pale corydalis grew in abundance. The recent 

 growth in some of these plants was marked, par- 

 ticularly in the buttercup (/2. bulbosus') and 

 bearberry. Walking back to Arlington, I saw 

 a downy woodpecker, a grouse, two golden- 

 crested kinglets, four chickadees, a dozen 

 crows, two flocks of blackbirds, including 

 fully forty birds, three more tree sparrows, a 

 fat spider, two black and orange caterpillars, 

 two snow-squalls, and a beautiful golden sunset. 

 Saturday night was clear and cold, more like a 

 winter night than one with some claims to the 

 name of spring. 



Sunday, the middle day of March, was bright 

 and blustering, a sharp contrast to the Sunday 

 previous, with its heat and strange stillness. I 

 began my walk at Waverley, and went by way of 

 Quince Street and Beaver Street to the easterly 



