22 NORTH CAROLINA 



the question presented less difficulty, and in 

 my turn I asked him and his brother-in-law 

 how often they were accustomed to see ravens 

 thereabout. Their reply was little to the 

 comfort of an enthusiast who had come a 

 thousand miles, more or less, with ravens in 

 his eye. Neither of them had seen one in 

 the last five years. Something had happened 

 to the birds, they could not say what. For- 

 merly it was nothing uncommon to notice 

 one or two flying over. Alas, this was not 

 the first time it had been borne in upon me 

 that, ornithologically, my portion was among 

 the belated. 



I have said nothing about it hitherto, but 

 I had not driven five or six hours through 

 strange woods and into the midst of strange 

 hills without an ear open for bird notes. 

 Even the rumbling of the heavy wagon and 

 the uneasy creaking of the harness could not 

 drown such music altogether, and once in a 

 while, as I have said, I spelled myself on 

 foot. At short intervals, too, when we came 

 to some promising spot, — a swampy thicket, 

 perhaps, or a patch of evergreens, — I called 

 a halt to listen ; the driver making no ob- 

 jection, and the horses less than none. The 



