BIRCH BROWSINGS. 195 



This bird was unknown to the older ornithologists, 

 and is but poorly described by the new. It builds a 

 mossy nest on the ground, or under the edge of a de- 

 cayed log. A correspondent writes me that he has 

 found it breeding on the mountains in Pennsylvania. 

 The large-billed water-thrush is much the superior 

 songster, but the present species has a very bright and 

 cheerful strain. The specimen I saw, contrary to the 

 habits of the family, kept in the tree-tops like a war- 

 bler, and seemed to be engaged in catching insects. 



The birds were unusually plentiful and noisy about 

 the head, of this lake ; robins, blue-jays, and wood- 

 peckers greeted me with their familiar notes. The 

 blue-jays found an owl or some wild animal a short 

 distance above me, and, as is their custom on such 

 occasions, proclaimed it at the top of their voices, 

 and kept on till the darkness began to gather in the 

 woods. 



I also heard here, as I had at two or three other 

 points in the course of the day, the peculiar, resonant 

 hammering of some species of woodpecker upon the 

 hard, dry limbs. It was unlike any sound of the kind 

 I had ever before heard, and, repeated at intervals 

 through the silent woods, was a very marked and char- 

 acteristic feature. Its peculiarity was the ordered 

 succession of the raps, which gave it the character 

 of a premeditated performance. There were first 

 three strokes following each other rapidly, then two 

 much louder ones with longer intervals between them. 



