110 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



vious occasions, and had heard him use to- 

 day. He was singing now, I said to myself, 

 more like the bird at Natural Bridge, the 

 only other one I had ever heard. It was 

 pleasant to find that even this tenth-rate per- 

 former, one of the poorest of a poor family, 

 had more than one tune in his music box. 



My spring vacation was planned to be 

 botanical rather than ornithological ; but we 

 are not the masters of our own fate, though 

 we sometimes try to think so, and my sketch 

 is turning out a bird piece, after all. The 

 truth is, I was in the birds' country, and it 

 was the birds' hour. They waked me every 

 morning, — veeries, bobolinks, vireos, spar- 

 rows, and what not ; ^ and as the day began, 



1 I made the following list of fifty odd species heard 

 and seen either from my windows or from the piazza : 

 bluebird, robin, veery, hermit thrush, olive-backed thrush, 

 chickadee, Canadian nuthatch, catbird, oven-bird, water 

 thrush, chestnut-sided warbler, myrtle warbler, redstart, 

 Nashville warbler, blue yellow-backed warbler, Maryland 

 yellow-throat, warbling vireo, red-eyed vireo, cedar-bird, 

 barn swallow, cli£E swallow, sand swallow, tree swallow, 

 goldfinch, purple finch, pine finch, red crossbill, indigo- 

 bird, snowbird, song sparrow, field sparrow, chipping 

 sparrow, vesper sparrow, white-throated sparrow, Balti- 

 more oriole, bobolink, red-winged blackbird, crow, blue 

 jay, kingbird, phoebe, least flycatcher, olive-sided fly- 



