ADIRONDAC. 9 1 



By the lake, I met that orchard-beauty, the cedar 

 wax-wing, spending his vacation in the assumed charac- 

 ter of a fly-catcher, whose part he performed with great 

 accuracy and deliberation. Only a month before I had 

 seen him regaling himself upon cherries in the garden 

 and orchard, but as the dog-days approached, he set 

 out for the streams and lakes, to divert himself with 

 the more exciting pursuits of the chase. From the tops 

 of the dead trees along the border of the lake, he would 

 sally out in all directions, sweeping through long curves, 

 alternately mounting and descending, now reaching up 

 for a fly high in air, now sinking low for one near the 

 surface, and returning to his perch in a few moments 

 for a fresh start. 



The pine-finch was also here, though, as usual, never 

 appearing at home, but with a waiting, expectant air. 

 Here also I met my beautiful singer, the hermit-thrush, 

 but with no song in his throat now. A week or two 

 later and he was on his journey southward. This was 

 the only species of thrush I saw in the Adirondac. Near 

 Lake Sandford, where were large tracts of raspberry and 

 wild cherry, I saw numbers of them. A boy whom we 

 met, driving home some stray cows, said it was the 

 " partridge-bird," no doubt from the resemblance of its 

 note, when disturbed, to the cluck of the partridge. 



Nate's Pond contained perch and sun-fish but no 

 trout. Its water was not pure enough for trout. Was 

 there ever any other fish so fastidious as this, requiring 

 such sweet harmony and perfection of the elements for 



