100 FIVE DAYS ON MOUNT MANSFIELD. 



imposed upon, simply because he was small? 

 The thrush, meantime, disdaining to defend 

 himself, would only stop now and then to 

 sing, as if to show to the world (every crea- 

 ture is the centre of a world) that such an 

 insect persecution could never ruffle his 

 spirit. Birds are to be commiserated, per- 

 haps, on having such an excess of what we 

 call human nature ; but the misfortune cer- 

 tainly renders them the more interesting to 

 us, who see our more amiable weaknesses so 

 often reflected in their behavior. 



For the sympathetic observer every kind 

 of bird has its own temperament. On one 

 of my jaunts down this Mount Mansfield 

 road I happened to espy a Canada jay in a 

 thick spruce. He was on one of the lower 

 branches, but pretty soon began mounting 

 the tree, keeping near the bole and going up 

 limb by limb in absolute silence, exactly in 

 the manner of our common blue jay. I was 

 glad to see him, but more desirous to hear 

 his voice, the loud, harsh scream with which 

 the books credit him, and which, a priori, 

 I should have little, hesitation in ascribing to 

 any member of his tribe. I waited till I 

 grew impatient. Then I started hastily to- 



