46 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



in the immediate vicinity of the hotel ; for 

 they, like some of their relatives, notably the 

 sapsucker, are true cherry-birds. In Ver- 

 mont, too, I have found their freshly cut 

 " peck-holes " on the very skirts of the vil- 

 lage. And at the South, so far as I have 

 been able to observe, the story is the same. 

 About Natural Bridge, Virginia, for exam- 

 ple, a loosely settled country, with plenty of 

 woodland but no extensive forests, the birds 

 were constantly in evidence. In short, un- 

 tamable as they look, and little as they may 

 like a town, they seem to find themselves 

 best off, as birds in general do, on the bor- 

 ders of civilization. They have something 

 of Thoreau's mind, we may say : lovers of 

 the wild, they are yet not quite at home in 

 the wilderness, and prefer the woodman's 

 path to the logger's. 



Not far ahead, on the other side of the 

 way, — to return to the Landaff Valley, — 

 is a red maple grove, more brilliant even 

 than the sugar orchards. It ripens its leaves 

 earlier than they, as we have always noticed, 

 and is already past the acme of its annual 

 splendor ; so that some of the trees have a 



