ADIRONDAC. 



* 



WHEN I went to the Adirondacs, which 

 was in the summer of 1863, I was in the 

 first flush of my ornithological studies, and 

 was curious, above all else, to know what 

 birds I should find in these solitudes : what 

 new ones, and what ones already known to 

 me. 



In visiting vast, primitive, far-off woods, 

 one naturally expects to find something rare 

 and precious, or something entirely new, 

 but it commonly happens that one is dis- 

 appointed. Thoreau made three excursions 

 into the Maine woods, and though he started 

 the moose and caribou, had nothing more 

 novel to report by way of bird notes, than 

 the songs of the wood-thrush and the pewee. 

 This was about my own experience in the 

 Adirondacs. The birds for the most part 

 prefer the vicinity of settlements and clear- 

 ings, and it was at such places that I saw 

 the greatest number and variety. 



