1O2 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



satisfactory, and at times exasperating, as the 

 recorded impressions of some other observer, 

 whether amateur or professional, it is necessary 

 not only to see and hear birds collectively, but 

 to single out some one of them as it flashes by 

 you, and follow it as best you can. You must 

 go on the "faint heart never won fair lady" 

 principle ; go determined to follow through 

 thick and thin. This seems much easier to say 

 than do, but the rambler will find his way very 

 seldom insuperably blocked. Time and civiliza- 

 tion have about obliterated the pathless forest 

 or impenetrable thicket, at least on this side of 

 the Mississippi River. Our wildest wilderness 

 is generally a rather tame affair, so it is not 

 a desperate undertaking to go to the edge of 

 a swamp, and, by going, you will see what a 

 picture some small bird in which you are inter- 

 ested makes of a mere mud-hole, some other- 

 wise desolate spot, shaded by rank weeds, and 

 giving off malarial odors. Here, to your infinite 

 surprise, you will be greeted by songs that you 

 have not previously heard, or heard indistinctly, 

 as when a yellow-throat transforms acknowl- 

 edged ugliness to accepted beauty by virtue 



