NOTES BY THE WAY. 



A NEW NOTE IN THE WOODS. 



THERE is always a new page to be turned in nat- 

 nral history, if one is sufficiently on the alert. I did 

 not know that the eagle celebrated his nuptials in the 

 air till one early spring day I saw a pair of them fall 

 from the sky with talons hooked together. They 

 dropped a hundred feet or more, in a wild embrace, 

 their great wings fanning the air, then separated and 

 mounted aloft, tracing their great circles against the 

 clouds. " Watch and wait " is the naturalist's sign. 

 For years I have been trying to ascertain for a cer- 

 tainty the author of that fine plaintive piping, to be 

 heard more or less frequently, according to the 

 weather, in our summer and autumn woods. It is a 

 note that much resembles that of our small marsh 

 frogs in spring < the hylodes ; it is not quite so .clear 

 and assured, but otherwise much the same. Of a 

 very warm October day I have heard the wood vocal 

 with it ; it seemed to proceed from every stump and 

 tree about one. Ordinarily, it is heard only at inter, 

 vals throughout the woods. Approach never so cau- 

 tiously the spot from which the sound proceeds, and 



