26 JUNE IN FRAN CON I A. 



But the principal interest of this my sec- 

 ond ascent of Mount Lafayette was to be 

 not botanical, but ornithological. We had 

 seen nothing noteworthy on the way up (I 

 was not alone this time, though I have so 

 far been rude enough to ignore my compan- 

 ion); but while at the Eagle Lakes, on our 

 return, we had an experience that threw me 

 into a nine days' fever. The other man 

 one of the botanists of last year's crew 

 was engaged in collecting viburnum speci- 

 mens, when all at once I caught sight of 

 something red in a dead spruce on the moun- 

 tain-side just across the tiny lake. I leveled 

 my glass, and saw with perfect distinctness, 

 as I thought, two pine grosbeaks in bright 

 male costume, birds I had never seen be- 

 fore except in winter. Presently a third 

 one, in dull plumage, came into view, hav- 

 ing been hidden till now' behind the bole. 

 The trio remained in sight for some time, 

 and then dropped into the living spruces 

 underneath, and disappeared. I lingered 

 about, while my companion and the black 

 flies were busy, and was on the point of 

 turning away for good, when up flew two 

 red birds and alighted in a tree close by the 



