PREFATORY NOTE 



I HAVE often said to myself, " Why should not 

 one name his books as he names his children, arbi- 

 trarily, and let the name come to mean much or 

 little, as the case may be ? '' In the case of the 

 present volume — probably my last collection of Out- 

 of-door Papers — I have taken this course, and have 

 given to the book the name of my place here on the 

 Hudson, " Riverby,'^ by the river, where the sketches 

 were written, and where for so many years I have 

 been an interested spectator of the life of nature, as, 

 with the changing seasons, it has ebbed and flowed 

 past my door. 



J. B. 



k 



