222 VIRGINIA 



slanderously spoken of as teetering) and 

 singing a measure or two, now taking to an 

 overhanging branch, sometimes at a consid- 

 erable height, for the same tuneful purpose. 

 One acrobatic fellow, I remember, walked 

 for some distance along the seemingly per- 

 pendicular face of the cliff, slipping now and 

 then on the wet surface and having to " wing 

 it " for a space, yet still pausing at short 

 intervals to let out a song. In truth, the 

 happy creatures were just then brimming 

 over with music ; and if I seem to praise 

 their efforts but grudgingly, it is to be said, 

 on the other hand, in justice to the song and 

 to myself, that my appreciation of it grew as 

 the days passed. Whatever else might be 

 true of it, it was the voice of the place. 



Of birds beside the rough-wings and the 

 water thrushes there were surprisingly few 

 in the glen, though, to be sure, there may 

 well have been many more than I found 

 trace of. The splashing of a mountain brook 

 is very pleasing music, — more pleasing, in 

 itself considered, than the great majority of 

 bird-songs, perhaps, — but an ornithological 

 hobbyist may easily have too much of it. I 

 call to mind how increasingly vexatious, and 



