210 SOME TENNESSEE BIED NOTES. 



seen to it that the scale inclined northward. 

 To this end I have made as much as possible 

 of the absence of robins, song sparrows, and 

 vesper sparrows, and of the comparative 

 dearth of swallows ; but of course the loyal 

 Tennessean is in no want of a ready answer. 

 Robins, song sparrows, vesper sparrows, and 

 swallows are not absent, except as breeding 

 birds. He has them all in their season, 1 

 and probably hears them sing. On the 

 whole, then, he may fairly retort, he has 

 considerably the advantage of us Yankees : 

 he sees our birds on their passage, and 

 drinks his fill of their music before we have 

 caught the first spring notes ; while we, on 

 the other hand, see nothing of his distinc- 

 tively southern birds unless we come South 

 for the purpose. Well, they are worth the 

 journey. Bachman's finch alone yes, the 

 one dingy, shabbily clad little genius by 

 the Chickamauga well might almost have 

 repaid me for my thousand miles on the rail. 



It was a strange mingling of sensations 

 that possessed me in Chattanooga. The 

 city itself was like other cities of its age 



1 See Dr. Fox's list. 



