380 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



bit ; the second I have caught. It is but five days be- 

 fore the law comes in ; so I'll tell nobody, and keep 

 it. 



The walk otherwise was stupid, wherever I went. 

 Neither hillside, upland, nor meadow had any attractions. 

 At last I detected a trace of animation in the birds. A 

 young English sparrow, having wandered from tlie high- 

 way, tried to make friends with a company of white- 

 throated sparrows. No bird ever made a more misera- 

 ble failure of any undertaking. It passed from one to 

 the other of the whole flock, and was rebuffed by each 

 in turn. Finally they left, in a flock, for a journey 

 across the meadows, leaving the young sparrow deject- 

 ed and forlorn. It seemed to have just enough sense 

 to know it was not wanted. 



Later in the day, and for an hour before sunset, in 

 particular, there was a return of animation, and the 

 hillside was enlivened by tiie united songs of Carolina 

 wrens, titmice, and nuthatches. It was a strange med- 

 ley, curious, but tiresome, and the pleasant warbling of 

 happy snow-birds in the adjoining fields was a positive 

 relief. The black-and-white snow-birds, or Juncos, are 

 now in the height of their glory. Half the fields are 

 forests of rank weeds, and the supply of nutritious seeds 

 is inexhaustible. It is no wonder that, whatever the 

 weather, they occasionally break forth in song, and sing, 

 too, in a manner creditable to the tribe of finches. Just 

 at sunset these snow-birds flew, in a loose flock, towards 

 the barn, and I followed to learn precisely where they 

 went. It proved that they were roosting in the cow- 

 stalls, ranging themselves along various beams, where 



