GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS 419 



about two miles west. I hear that the air was full of 

 birds singing thereabouts. It rained gently at the same 

 time, though not steadily. 



Aug. 5, 1855. 8 P. M. — On river to see swallows. 



At this hour the robins fly to high, thick oaks (as 

 this swamp white oak) to roost for the night. The wings 

 of the chimney swallows flying near me make a whis- 

 tling sound like a duck's. Is not this peculiar among 

 the swallows ? They flutter much for want of tail. I 

 see martins about. Now many swallows in the twilight, 

 after circling eight feet high, come back two or three 

 hundred feet high and then go down the river. 



Sept. 15, 1855. Three weeks ago saw many brown 

 thrashers, catbirds, robins, etc., on wild cherries. They 

 are worth raising for the birds about you, though ob- 

 jectionable on account of caterpillars. 



Oct. 22, 1855. Birds are certainly afraid of man. 

 They [allow] all other creatures, — cows and horses, 

 etc., — excepting only one or two kinds, birds or beasts 

 of prey, to come near them, but not man. What does 

 this fact signify ? Does it not signify that man, too, is 

 a beast of prey to them ? Is he, then, a true lord of cre- 

 ation, whose subjects are afraid of him, and with rea- 

 son ? They know very well that he is not humane, as 

 he pretends to be. 



Dec. 11, 1855. Standing there, though in this bare 

 November landscape, I am reminded of the incredible 

 phenomenon of small birds in winter, — that ere long, 

 amid the cold powdery snow, as it were a fruit of the 

 season, will come twittering a flock of delicate crimson- 

 tinged birds, lesser redpolls, to sport and feed on the 



