PEPACTON 



cedar-birds, high-holes, and cow blackbirds make 

 amid the black cherry-trees as we pass along! The 

 raccoons, too, have been here after black cherries, 

 and we see their marks at various points. Several 

 crows are walking about a newly sowed wheat-field 

 we pass through, and we pause to note their grace- 

 ful movements and glossy coats. I have seen no 

 bird walk the ground with just the same air the 

 crow does. It is not exactly pride; there is no strut 

 or swagger in it, though perhaps just a little con- 

 descension ; it is the contented, complaisant, and 

 self-possessed gait of a lord over his domains. All 

 these acres are mine, he says, and all these crops; 

 men plow and sow for me, and I stay here or go 

 there, and find life sweet and good wherever I am. 

 The hawk looks awkward and out of place on the 

 ground ; the game-birds hurry and skulk ; but the 

 crow i at home, and treads the earth as if there 

 were none to molest or make him afraid. 



The crows we have always with us, but it is not 

 every day or every season that one sees an eagle. 

 Hence I must preserve the memory of one I saw 

 the last day I went bee-hunting. As I was labor- 

 ing up the side of a mountain at the head of a 

 valley, the noble bird sprang from the top of a 

 dry tree above me and came sailing directly over 

 my head. I saw him bend his eye down upon me, 

 and I could hear the low hum of his plumage as if 

 the web of every quill in his great wings vibrated in 



