110 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



two black lines, bounded in turn by the whitish 

 line over the eyes. While I was watching them 

 their attention was diverted by the barking of a 

 gray squirrel in the woods, but they seemed to 

 listen to him as they had me, with quiet interest, 

 little more. 



A large flock of them stayed here for about a 

 month, keeping always near the same spots, a 

 brush heap, an old dead tree-top, by which water 

 and grain were kept for them, and a raspberry 

 patch a few rods away. From the raspberry patch 

 would come their quarrying note that Mr. Bick- 

 nell speaks of, the peculiar chelink that gives the 

 sound of a chisel slipping on stone, and which, 

 when coming from a flock at a little distance, gives 

 the effect of a quarry full of stone cutters. As 

 I went through the patch they would fly up from 

 among the bushes, some uttering a little surprised 

 chree, some calling cheep as they flew noisily by, 

 while others clung, crouching close, to the side of 

 a stem, looking back to see who I was. 



The small slate-colored snowbirds, the juncos, 

 were with the sparrows more than any other birds ; 

 but the oven-bird, whose premises they had invaded, 

 looked down on them with mild curiosity until it 

 was time for her to go south ; and later, a family 

 of chewinks chased them off the fence by way of 

 turnabout justice, though you are tempted to feel 

 that the white-throats need little punishment. 

 They have none of the petulance or arbitrariness 



