84 DYERS HOLLOW. 



Near the spring was a vegetable garden, and 

 here, on the 22d of August, I suddenly es- 

 pied a water thrush teetering upon the tip 

 of a bean-pole, his rich olive-brown back 

 glistening in the sunlight. He soon dropped 

 to the ground among the vines, and before 

 long walked out into sight. His action when 

 he saw me was amusing. Instead of darting 

 back, as a sparrow, for instance, would have 

 done, he flew up to the nearest perch; that 

 is, to the top of the nearest bean-pole, which 

 happened to be a lath. Wood is one of the 

 precious metals on Cape Cod, and if oars are 

 used for fence-rails, and fish-nets for hen- 

 coops, why not laths for bean-poles ? The 

 perch was narrow, but wide enough for the 

 bird's small feet. Four times he came up 

 in this way to look about him, and every 

 time alighted thus on the top of a pole. At 

 the same moment three prairie warblers were 

 chasing each other about the garden, now 

 clinging to the side of the poles, now alight- 

 ing on their tips. It was a strange spot for 

 prairie warblers, as it seemed to me, though 

 they looked still more out of place a minute 

 later, when they left the bean-patch and sat 

 upon a rail fence in an open grassy field. 



