254 VIRGINIA 



of a reddish-brown bird darting out of sight 

 before me. Do my best, I could find nothing 

 more of it. If it was a veery, as I suppose, 

 it was the only one I saw in Virginia, where 

 the species, from Dr. Rives's account of the 

 matter, seems to be a rather uncommon mi- 

 grant. Unhappily, I could not bring my 

 scientific conscience to list it on so hurried 

 a sight, even with the note as corroborative 

 testimony. That, for aught I could posi- 

 tively assert, might have been a gray-cheek's, 

 while the reddish color might with equal 

 possibility have belonged to a wood thrush, 

 clear as it had seemed at the moment that 

 what I was looking at was the back of the 

 bird itself, and not the back of its head. 

 Doubt is credulous. All kinds of negatives 

 are plausible to it, and once it has adopted 

 one it will maintain it in the face of the five 

 senses. 



On the opposite side of the path, in the 

 bushy angles of a Virginia fence, a hooded 

 warbler showed himself, furtive and silent, 

 — my only Bridge specimen, to my great 

 surprise ; and near him was a female black- 

 throated blue, a queer-looking body, like 

 nothing in particular, yet labeled past mis- 



