78 NORTH CAROLINA 



civil answer I called it, but it was better 

 tban tbat; indicating, as it did, some 

 acquaintance with the rough-wing's habits, 

 or a shrewd knack at guessing. But the 

 man knew nothing about a bird that nested 

 in barns. 



A short distance beyond the bridge, in 

 a clearing over which lay scattered the 

 remains of a house that had formerly stood 

 in it (for even this new country is not 

 destitute of ruins), a pair of snowbirds 

 were chipping nervously, and near the 

 same spot my ear caught the lisping call 

 of my first North Carolina brown creeper. 

 No doubt it was breeding somewhere close 

 by, and my imagination at once fastened 

 upon a loose clump of water-kiUed trees, 

 from the trunks of which the dry bark was 

 peeling in big sun-warped flakes, as the site 

 of its probable habitation. This was on my 

 first jaunt over the road, and during the 

 busy days that followed I planned more 

 than once to spend an hour here in spying 

 upon the birds. A brown creeper's nest 

 would be something new for me. Now, 

 therefore, on this bright morning, when I 

 was done with the swallows, I walked on 



