THE TREASURE-HUNT 137 



The Band felt that they could bear nothing further 

 in the story line after this anecdote, and the Treasure 

 having gone the way of all treasures, the march 

 back was begun. It was the Captain who, on this 

 homeward trip, discovered another treasure. They 

 were passing a marshy swale of land, where a little 

 stream trickled through a tangle of trees. From out 

 of the thicket came an unknown bird-call. "Pip, 

 pip, pip," it sounded. As they peered among the 

 bushes, on a low branch the Captain saw six strange 

 birds, all gold and white and black, with thick, white 

 bills. Never had the Band seen him so excited before. 

 He told them that the strangers were none other 

 than a company of the rare evening grosbeaks, 

 which had come down from the far Northwest, 

 which had never before been reported in that 

 county, and which few bird-students ever meet in 

 a whole lifetime, although he had found a flock in 

 New Jersey a few months before. For long the Band 

 stood and watched them. They flew down on the 

 ground and began feeding on cherry-pits, cracking 

 the stones in their great bills. At times they would 

 fly up into a tree and sidle along the limbs like little 

 parrots. The females had mottled black-and-white 

 wings and gray backs and breasts, while the males 

 had golden breasts and backs, with wings half velvet- 

 black and half ivory-white. 



For a long time they all watched the birds and 

 made notes, until the dimming light warned them 

 that it was time to be on their way. In the twilight 

 the hylas called across the marshes, and from upland 



