91 DATS OUT OF DOORS. 



sufficient interest to repay us for our tramp. Is there not 

 something savoring of unwisdom in this? It is true, 

 every one of them had been long familiar ; their habits 

 thoroughly known ; yet, paradoxical as the statement may 

 seem, not one but has the glamour of mystery about it. 

 It is only necessary to take up American ornithological 

 literature, and we will quickly find that the world is not 

 of one mind, even as to cat-birds or the chipping sparrow. 

 Scores of white-bellied swallows were darting over the 

 water all day, and there is good ground for believing they 

 have a nesting habit that is as yet unrecorded. We saw a 

 single kingfisher, and I am told that a pair of these birds 

 had once nested in a pile of railroad ties near here, after 

 their nest in the bank of an inflowing brook had twice 

 been washed away by sudden showers that gullied the 

 loose earth which they had tunneled. May not such an 

 occurrence be really less remarkable than we suppose, and 

 have occurred time after time and been overlooked ? How 

 is it possible to keep such<watch upon birds that all their 

 irregularities shall be promptly discovered. I am more and 

 more inclined to give heed to what I hear, considering how 

 often I have myself seen the unexpected and improbable. 

 Purple martins were abundant during the summer of 1887, 

 and we saw many during our up-river ramble. They 

 must have a nesting-place in the neighborhood, yet no 

 boxes are occupied by them, these being tenanted by the 

 English sparrows. Have they not probably returned to 

 hollow trees? They have been known to do so within 

 the present century. 



The rose-breasted grosbeak is essentially a bird of the 

 tall trees, and possibly would die if confined to the open 

 fields, yet I have watched them by the hour, associated 

 most familiarly with chewinks, scratching among the dead 

 leaves. I was held all one forenoon, last May, to a single 

 spot, watching a red-headed woodpecker as it sallied from 



