6 IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 



far as the bird could be distinguished at all, 

 he looked exactly like our common New 

 England towhee. Somewhere behind me 

 was a kingfisher's rattle, and from a savanna 

 in the same direction came the songs of 

 meadow larks ; familiar, but with something 

 unfamiliar about them at the same time, 

 unless my ears deceived me. 



More interesting than any of the birds yet 

 named, because more strictly characteristic 

 of the place, as well as more strictly new to 

 me, were the brown-headed nuthatches. I 

 was on the watch for them : they were one 

 of the three novelties which I knew were to 

 be found in the pine lands, and nowhere else, 

 the other two being the red-cockaded 

 woodpecker and the pine-wood sparrow ; and 

 being thus on the lookout, I did not expect 

 to be taken by surprise, if such a paradox 

 (it is nothing worse) may be allowed to pass. 

 But when I heard them twittering in the 

 distance, as I did almost immediately, I had 

 no suspicion of what they were. The voice 

 had nothing of that nasal quality, that Yan- 

 kee twang, as some people would call it, 

 which I had always associated with the nut- 

 hatch family. On the contrary, it was de- 



