IN THE LANDAFF VALLEY 219 



suit justified the prophecy, which was based 

 upon the bird's behavior of two years before, 

 when all his activities seemed to be very nar- 

 rowly confined — say within a radius of four 

 or five rods. 



We had hardly reached the place, two days 

 afterward, before we heard him singing close 

 by us, — in the very clump of firs where he 

 had so many times shown himself, — and after 

 a minute or two of patience we had him un- 

 der our opera-glasses. The sight gave me, 

 I am not ashamed to confess, a thriU of ex- 

 quisite pleasure. It was something to think 

 of — the return of so rare a bird to so pre- 

 cise a spot. With all the White Mountain 

 region, not to say all of northern New Eng- 

 land and of British America, before him, he 

 had come back from the tropics (for who 

 could doubt that he was indeed the bird of 

 two years ago, or one of that bird's pro- 

 geny ?) to spend another summer in this par- 

 ticular bunch of Franconia evergreens. He 

 had kept them in mind, wherever he had 

 wandered, and, behold, here he was again, 

 singing in their branches, as if he had known 

 that I should be coming hither to find him. 



