WILSON'S THRUSH. 199 



side of the road, apparently indifferent to the 

 baying of hounds, as well as the noisy play of 

 the children ; but I have also found others that 

 were shy, even in the seclusion of an alder 

 swamp. 



In our woods there are five haunts of the veery. 

 Two are in a dry second growth, one of which is 

 on the western exposure of the woods where the 

 coldest winds sweep over the hill, and little is 

 heard save the woodpecker's reveille and the pen- 

 sive note of the wood pewee. Here the thrushes' 

 chief occupation is to turn the dry leaves aside 

 with their bills, and scratch among them, oven- 

 bird fashion, for worms. The three other places 

 are moist ferneries, two of them being in the 

 most protected part of the woods. One is in the 

 partridges' cover, the grove of maple saplings 

 where the redstart and the oven-bird nest, and 

 the sun streams in to light up great masses of the 

 arching hairy mountain fern, and warm the moss- 

 covered drumming log of the partridge. An- 

 other is an old swamp on whose border a giant 

 hemlock stands. Here the red morning sunlight 

 creeps up soon after the birds are awake, and 

 touches caressingly the smooth trunks of the 

 beeches. It always seems as if the veery were 

 more sociable here than on the dark western side 

 of the woods. If you find one running along on 

 the dark moss, you are sure to see another stand- 

 ing among the ferns ; if you stop to see how the 



