SOUTHWARD BOUND 69 



exceptional date were somehow connected. 

 At the time, I took the circumstance as an 

 indication that the adult males migrate in 

 advance of the great body of the species ; 

 and I fancied that, having detected them 

 once thus early and thus musical, I should 

 be likely to repeat the experience. If I am 

 ever to do so, however, I must be about it. 

 Eleven years is a large slice out of an adult 

 man's remaining allowance. 



On the 18th I found a single olive-backed 

 thrush, silent, in company with a flock of 

 robins, or in the same grove with them a 

 White Mountain bird, thrice welcome ; and 

 this morning a few white-throated sparrows 

 appeared. The first one that I saw the 

 only one, in fact was a young fellow, and 

 as I caught sight of him facing me, with his 

 clear white throat, and his breast prettily 

 streaked, with a wash of color across it, I 

 was half in doubt what to call him. While 

 I was taking observations upon his plumage, 

 trying to make him look like himself, he 

 began to chip, as if to help me out, and a 

 second one unseen fell to singing near by; 

 a very feeble and imperfect rendering of the 



