86 ADIRONDAC. 



clearings, and it was at such places that I saw the 

 greatest number and variety. 



At the clearing of an old hunter and pioneer by 

 the name of Hewett, where we paused a couple of 

 days on first entering the woods, I saw many old 

 friends and made some new acquaintances. The 

 snow-bird was very abundant here, as it had been at 

 various points along the route, after leaving Lake 

 George. As I went out to the spring in the morn- 

 ing to wash myself a purple finch flew up before me, 

 having already performed its ablutions. I had first 

 observed this bird the winter before in "the Highlands 

 of the Hudson, where, during several clear but cold 

 February mornings, a troop of them sang most charm- 

 ingly in a tree in front of my house. The meeting 

 with the bird here in its breeding haunts was a pleas- 

 ant surprise. During the day I observed several 

 pine finches a dark brown or brindlish bird, allied 

 to the common yellow-bird, which it much resembles 

 in its manner and habits. They lingered familiarly 

 about the house, sometimes alighting in a small tree 

 within a few feet of it. In one of the stumpy fields I 

 saw an old favorite in the grass finch or vesper spar- 

 low. It was sitting on a tall charred stub with food 

 in its beak. But all along the borders of the woods 

 and in the bushy parts of the fields there was a new 

 song that I was puzzled in tracing to the author. I* 

 was most noticeable in the morning and at twilight, 

 but was at all times singularly secret and elusive. 

 I at last discovered that it was the white-throate<? 



