74 IN THE HEMLOCKS. 



word of condolence or encouragement to the dis- 

 tressed pair. I have often noticed among birds this 

 show of sympathy, if indeed it be sympathy, and 

 not merely curiosity, or desire to be forewarned of 

 the approach of a common danger. 



An hour afterward I approach the place, find all 

 still, and the mother bird upon the nest. As I draw 

 near she seems to sit closer, her eyes growing large 

 with an inexpressibly wild, beautiful look. She 

 keeps her place till I am within two paces of her, 

 when she flutters away as at first. In the brief in- 

 terval the remaining egg has hatched, and the two 

 little nestlings lift their heads without being jostled 

 or overreached by any strange bedfellow. A week 

 afterward and they were flown away, so brief is 

 the infancy of birds. And the wonder is that they 

 escape, even for this short time, the skunks and 

 minks and muskrats that abound here, and that have 

 a decided partiality for such tidbits. 



I pass on through the old Barkpeeling, now 

 threading an obscure cow-path or an overgrown 

 wood-road ; now clambering over soft and decayed 

 logs, or forcing my way through a net-work of briers 

 and hazels ; now entering a perfect bower of wild- 

 cherry, beech, and soft-maple ; now emerging into a 

 little grassy lane, golden with buttercups or white 

 with daisies, or wading waist-deep in the red rasp- 

 berry-bushes. 



Whir ! whir ! whir ! and a brood of half-grown 

 partridges start up like an explosion, a few pace? 



