WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 233 



my approach was I cannot say ; but it must 

 be confessed that I played upon their fears 

 to the utmost of my ability, wishing to see 

 as many of their neighbors as the disturb- 

 ance would bring together. Several other 

 thrashers, a catbird, and two house wrens 

 appeared (all these, since " blood is thicker 

 than water," may have felt some special 

 cousinly solicitude, for aught I know), with 

 a ruby-crowned kinglet and a field sparrow. 



In the valley, near a little pond, as I came 

 out into the Meridian road, a solitary vireo 

 was singing, in the very spot where one had 

 been heard six days before. Was it the 

 same bird ? I asked myself. And was it 

 settled for the summer ? Such an explana- 

 tion seemed the more likely because I had 

 found no solitary vireo anywhere else about 

 the city, though the species had been com- 

 mon earlier in the season in eastern and 

 southern Florida, where I had seen my last 

 one at New Smyrna March 26. 



At this same dip in the Meridian road, 

 on a previous visit, I had experienced one of 

 the pleasantest of my Tallahassee sensations. 

 The morning was one of those when eveiy 

 bird is in tune. By the road side I had just 



