A NOOK IN THE ALLEGHANIES 183 



be a law unto themselves. In northern New- 

 England they are said to lay their eggs in 

 late winter or early spring, when the tem- 

 perature is liable, or even certain, to run 

 many degrees below zero. Yet, if the no- 

 tion takes them, a pair will raise a brood in 

 Massachusetts or in Maryland in the middle 

 of May ; which strikes me, I am bound to 

 say, as a far more reasonable and Christian- 

 like proceeding. And the same erratic qual- 

 ity pertains to their ordinary, every -day 

 behavior. Even their simplest flight from 

 one hill to another, as I witnessed it here in 

 Virginia, for example, has an air of being 

 all a matter of chance. Now they tack to 

 the right, now to the left, now in close order, 

 now every one for himself; no member of 

 the flock appearing to know just how the 

 course lies, and all hands calling incessantly, 

 as the only means of coming into port to- 

 gether. 



When I spoke just now of the worm- 

 eating warbler's song as almost the only 

 new one heard in Virginia, I ought perhaps 

 to have guarded my words. I meant to say 

 that the worm-eater was almost the only 

 species that I there heard sing for the first 



