GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS 417 



killed in the thaws. Four or five downy woodpeckers. 

 The white-breasted nuthatch four or five times. Tree 

 sparrows one or more at a time, oftener than any bird 

 that comes to us from the north. Two pigeon wood- 

 peckers, I think, lately. One dead shrike, and perhaps 

 one or two live ones. Have heard of two white owls, — 

 one about Thanksgiving time and one in midwinter. 

 One short-eared owl in December. Several flocks of 

 snow buntings for a week in the severest storm, and in 

 December, last past. One grebe in Walden just before 

 it froze completely. And two brown creepers once in 

 middle of February. Channing says he saw a little 

 olivaceous-green bird lately. I have not seen an F. 

 linaria^ nor a pine grosbeak, nor an F. hyemalis this 

 winter, though the first was the prevailing bird last 

 winter. 



March 12, 1854. All these birds do their warbling 

 especially in the still, sunny hour after sunrise, as rivers 

 twinkle at their sources. Now is the time to be abroad 

 and hear them, as you detect the slightest ripple in 

 smooth water. As with tinkling sounds the sources of 

 streams burst their icy fetters, so the rills of music begin 

 to flow and swell the general quire of spring. 



May 10, 1854. In Boston yesterday an ornitholo- 

 gist said significantly, " If you held the bird in your 

 hand — ; " but I would rather hold it in my affections. 



Aug. 10, 1854. The tinkling notes of goldfinches and 

 bobolinks which we hear nowadays are of one character 

 and peculiar to the season. They are not voluminous 

 flowers, but rather nuts, of sound, — ripened seeds of 

 sound. It is the tinkling of ripened grains in Nature's 



