SPRING 115 



solitary sandpiper — being omitted) were a 

 single meadow lark and a single yellow- 

 throated vireo. The lark seemed to be un- 

 known to Franconia people, and my speci- 

 men may have been only a straggler. He 

 sang again and again on May 22, but I 

 heard nothing from him afterward, though I 

 passed the place often. The vireo was sing- 

 ing in a sugar grove on the 3d of June, — 

 a date on which, accidents apart, he should 

 certainly have been at home for the summer. 

 Because I have had so much to say about 

 the Cape May warbler and the wood thrush, 

 it is not to be assumed that I mean to set 

 them in the first place, nor even that I had 

 in them the highest pleasure. They sur- 

 prised me, and surprise is always more talk- 

 ative than simple appreciation ; but the birds 

 that ministered most to my enjoyment were 

 the hermit and the veery. The veery is not 

 an every-day singer with me at home, and 

 the hermit, for some years past, has made 

 himself almost a stranger. I hardly know 

 which of the two put me under the greater 

 obligation. The veery sang almost continu- 

 ally, and a good veery is a singer almost out 



