204 BIRCH BRO\V SINGS. 



I had ever before heard, and, repeated at intervals 

 through the silent woods, was a very marked and 

 characteristic feature. Its peculiarity was the ordered 

 succession of the raps, which gave it the character of 

 a premeditated performance. There were first three 

 strokes following each other rapidly, then two much 

 louder ones with longer intervals between them. I 

 heard the drumming here, and the next day at sunset 

 at Furlow Lake, the source of Dry Brook, and in no 

 instance was the order varied. There was melody in 

 it, such as a woodpecker knows how to evoke from a 

 smooth, dry branch. It suggested something quite 

 as pleasing as the liveliest bird-song, and was if any- 

 thing more woodsy and wild. As the yellow-bellied 

 woodpecker was the most abundant species in these 

 woods I attributed it to him. It is the one sound 

 that still links itself with those scenes in my mind. 



At sunset the grouse began to drum in all parts of 

 the woods about the lake. I could hear five at one 

 time, thump, thump, thump, thump, thr-r-r-r-r-r-rr. 

 It was a homely, welcome sound. As I returned to 

 camp at twilight, along the shore of the lake, the 

 frogs also were in full chorus. The older ones ripped 

 out their responses to each other with terrific force 

 and volume. I know of no other animal capable of 

 giving forth so much sound, in proportion to its size, 

 as a frog. Some of these seemed to bellow as loud 

 as a two-year-old bull. They were of immense size, 

 and very abundant. No frog-eater had ever been 

 there. Near the shore we felled a tree which reached 



