100 NOBTH CABOLINA 



blue-headed vireos which at different times 

 had allowed me to stroke and feed them as 

 they sat brooding on their eggs. 



Another thing I must mention, as adding 

 not a little to the pleasure of the hour. 

 The moment I set eyes upon the phalarope, 

 before I had taken even a mental note of 

 its plumage, I thought of my friend and cor- 

 respondent, Celia Thaxter, and of her eager 

 inquiries about the " bay bird," which she 

 had then seen for the first time at the Isles 

 of Shoals — "just like a sandpiper, only 

 smaller, and swimming on the water like a 

 duck." And as the bird before me darted 

 hither and thither, so amazingly agile, I re- 

 membered her pretty description of this very 

 trait, a description which I here copy from 

 her letter : — 



" He was swimming about the wharf near 

 the landing, a pretty, dainty creature, in 

 soft shades of gray and white, with the 

 * needle-like beak,' and a rapidity of motion 

 that I have never seen equaled in any living 

 thing except a darting dragon-fly or some 

 restless insect. He was never for one in- 

 stant still, darting after his food on the 

 surface of the water. He seemed perfectly 



