Golden-crowned Thruth. 



ADIRONDAC. 



WHEN I went to the Adirondacs, which was in 

 the summer of 1863, I was in the first flush of my 

 ornithological studies, and was curious, above all else, 

 to know what birds I should find in these solitudes 

 what new ones, and what ones already known to 

 me. 



In visiting vast, primitive, far-off woods one natu- 

 rally expects to find something rare and precious, or 

 something entirely new, but it commonly happens 

 that one is disappointed. Thoreau made three excur- 

 sions into the Maine woods, and though he started 

 the moose and caribou, had nothing more novel to 

 report by way of bird notes, than the songs of the 

 wood-thrush and the pewee. This was about my 

 own experience in the Adirondacs. The birds for 

 the most part prefer the vicinity of settlements and 



