268 VIRGINIA 



— or so I believed. This was a bird not 

 yet included in my Virginia list. I had 

 puzzled over its absence — the country 

 seeming in all respects adapted to it — till 

 I consulted Dr. Rives, by whom it is set 

 down as " rare." Even then, emboldened 

 by more than one happy experience, I told, 

 myself that I ought to find it. It is com- 

 mon enough in New England ; why should 

 it skip Virginia ? And here it was ; only I 

 must go through the formality of a visual 

 inspection, especially as just now the song 

 came from rather far away. I entered one 

 of the house-yards, — nobody objecting ex- 

 cept a dog, — climbed the rear fence, and 

 posted up the steep, rocky hill, past a hum- 

 ming-bird sipping at a violet, and by and 

 by lifted my glass upon the singer, which 

 had been in voice all the while. By this 

 time I was practically sure of its identity. 

 In imagination I could already see its bright 

 yellow breast. The name was as good as 

 down in my book, — Helminthophila rufica- 

 pilla. But the glass, having no imagina- 

 tion, showed me a white breast with a dark 

 line across it, — a cerulean warbler ! Verily, 

 an ear is a vain thing for safety. See your 



