AT NATURAL BRIDGE 255 



take, which I can never see without a kind 

 of wonder. Among the treetop birds were 

 Bhickburnian warblers, black-throated greens 

 and blues, chestnut-sides, redstarts, myrtle- 

 birds, red -eyed and yellow-throated vireos, 

 and indigo -birds. Many white - throated 

 sparrows still lingered ; singing flat, as 

 usual, — the only birds I know of that find 

 it impossible to hold the pitch. The de- 

 fect has its favorable side ; it makes their 

 concerts amusing. I remember seeing a 

 quiet gentleman thrown into fits of uncon- 

 trollable laughter by the rehearsal of a 

 spring flock, bird after bird starting the 

 tune, and not one in ten of them keeping its 

 whistle true to the conclusion of the measure. 

 All these things, — though they may seem 

 not many, — with the long rests and numer- 

 ous side excursions that went with them, 

 consumed the morning hours before I knew 

 it, so that I was hardly at the end of the 

 way before it was time to return for dinner. 

 For the afternoon nothing was to be 

 thought of but another visit to the same 

 place, — '• the finest place I have seen yet, 

 and the finest walk." So I had put down 

 the morning's discovery. The cerulean war- 



