A BIRD-GAZER AT THE CANON 



the while, and the result always bore out his faith, 

 that even here, and in winter, and on this very- 

 day, time and patience could not be spent alto- 

 gether in vain. If he saw nothing, as sometimes 

 was true, on the two or three miles to Rowe's 

 Point, for example, why, there was still the chance 

 of something on the return. The very spot that 

 had been vacant at eight o'clock might be astir 

 with wings an hour or two later; for, as we say, 

 winter birds, with no family duties to tie them, 

 and the cool weather to enliven them, are con- 

 tinually on the go. 



Thus it happened that the bird-gazer, retrac- 

 ing his steps after a long jaunt that had shown 

 him nothing (nothing in his special line, that is 

 to say ; there is always something for a sensible 

 pair of eyes to look at), was brought to the sud- 

 denest kind of standstill by the sight of two or 

 three birds on the ground a few rods in advance. 

 " Bluebirds ! Bluebirds ! " he said. And so they 

 were, here in the very midst of the wood, impos- 

 sible as the encounter seemed to a man ac- 

 customed only to the bluebird of the East, which 

 might almost as soon be looked for upon a mill- 

 pond as in a forest. His glass covered one of 

 them. All its visible under parts were blue ! It 

 moved out of sight, and the glass was leveled 

 upon another, and then upon another, as oppor- 

 223 



