180 VIRGINIA 



has been likened to that of the chipper, but 

 my bird had nothing like the chipper's gift 

 of continuance. 



This worm-eater's song must count as the 

 best ornithological incident of the forenoon, 

 since nothing else is quite so good as abso- 

 lute novelty ; but I was glad also to see 

 for the first time hereabouts four commoner 

 birds, — the pileated woodpecker, the sap- 

 sucker (yellow-bellied woodpecker), the 

 rose - breasted grosbeak, and the black- 

 throated blue warbler. I had undertaken a 

 local list, of course, — a lazier kind of col- 

 lecting, — and so was thankful for small 

 favors. In the way of putting a shine upon 

 common things the collecting spirit is second 

 only to genius. I was glad to see them, I 

 say ; but, to be exact, I saw only three out 

 of the four. The big woodpecker was heard, 

 not seen. And while I stood still, hoping 

 that he would repeat himself, and possibly 

 show himself, I heard a chorus of crossbill 

 notes, — like the cries of barnyard chickens 

 a few weeks old, — and, looking up, descried 

 the authors of them, a flock of ten birds 

 flying across the valley. They were not 

 new, even to my Pulaski notebook, but they 



