ADIRONDAC 



WHEN I went to the Adirondacs, which was in 

 the summer of 1863, I was in the first flush 

 of my ornithological studies, and was»curious, above all 

 else, to know what birds I should find in these soli- 

 tudes — what new ones, and what ones already known 

 to me. 



In visiting vast, primitive, far-off woods one natu- 

 rally expects to find something rare and precious, or 

 something entirely new, but it commonly happens that 

 one is disappointed. Thoreau made three excursions 

 into the Maine woods, and though he started the moose 

 and caribou, had nothing more novel to report by 

 way of bird notes, than the songs of the wood-thrush 

 and the pewee. This was about my own experience in 

 the Adirondacs. The birds for the most part prefer 

 the vicinity of settlements and clearings, and it was at 

 such places that I saw the greatest number and variety. 



At the clearing of an old hunter and pioneer by the 

 name of Hewett, where we paused a couple of days on 

 first entering the woods, I saw many old friends and 

 made some new acquaintances. The snow-bird was 

 very abundant here, as it had been at various points 

 along the route, after leaving Lake George. As I went 



