264: DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



which I could see but a ragged, fluttering edge. Then, 

 caught by the wind, each bird was tilted toward me for an 

 instant, the light played upon its back, and a broad sheet 

 of silver floated across the meadow, settling slowly on the 

 leaf-strewed sod and lost to view, although not twenty 

 rods away. 



Piqued by my failure to approach as closely as I wished, 

 I made a second attempt, creeping this time upon my 

 hands and knees for nearly one hundred yards. But this 

 again was illy planned. I could see the birds at times, it 

 was true, but only caught the most aggravating glimpses, 

 and learned nothing, except that the same extraordinary 

 restlessness possessed them that I had previously noticed. 

 Tiring soon of my futile efforts to learn even the cause of 

 this, I arose without any caution and stood in full view, 

 not five paces distant. Not a bird noticed me ! If they 

 saw me at all, I was mistaken for a bush ; but I gained 

 one point I saw that they were feeding upon insects. 

 Kunning forward and shouting at the same moment, the 

 whole thousand or more took flight as one bird, drifting 

 before the wind like the autumn leaves that mingled with 

 them, over and beyond the adjoining marshes. 



The departing cowpen birds did not leave me deserted ; 

 but the contrast for a time suggested solitude. The merry 

 clatter of their many voices still rang in my ears, but was 

 gone in a moment, when I heard the sharp " peep " of 

 Pickering's hyla. Perhaps no autumn sound is so gener- 

 ally misinterpreted as this. Few people in this region 

 seem to know that so small a tree-toad exists, and most of 

 those who do, attribute its shrill call, particularly when 

 heard in November, to a bird. It is not a strange mis- 

 take. The familiar tree-toad of summer has long since 

 been silent, or practically so ; and then we never associate 

 him with November and the leafless tree-tops. At best, 

 he lives among the lower branches, and I, for one, have 



