A STRANGE HUSH 47 



mystery which had so interested me, and 

 while there still remained ten days of the 

 second summer month, that lovely corner of 

 the world was wrapped in a smothering fog, 

 which came in the afternoon and remained 

 all night, with rain. The next morning was 

 clear and bright, but a strange hush had 

 faUen upon us. Not a bird-note was to be 

 heard save 



" The gossip of swallows all through the sky." 



Warblers and thrushes, white-throats and 

 even juncoes, seemed to have departed in a 

 body. All day this unnatural silence con- 

 tinued. I was alarmed. Had migration al- 

 ready begun ? Had the warblers, who here- 

 tofore had hardly moved without uttering 

 their little calls and cries, taken leave for 

 the season ? Had the olive-backed thrush, so 

 voluble only the day before, been suddenly 

 stricken dumb? 



I made many excursions to see if the birds 

 had really gone so early. Now and then in 

 my rambles I came upon a black-throated 

 green warbler, whose song had heretofore 

 made the woods resound, going about shyly 



