SPRING JOTTINGS 169 



air ! — that kind of weather when there seems to be 

 dew in the air all day, — the day a kind of pro- 

 longed morning, — so fresh, so wooing, so caressing ! 

 The baby leaves on the apple-trees have doubled in 

 size since last night. 



March 12, 1891. Had positive proof this morn- 

 ing that at least one song sparrow has come back to 

 his haunts of a year ago. One year ago to-day my 

 attention was attracted, while walking over to the 

 post-office, by an unfamiliar bird-song. It caught 

 my ear while I was a long way off. I followed it 

 up and found that it proceeded from a song sparrow. 

 Its chief feature was one long, clear high note, very 

 strong, sweet, and plaintive. It sprang out of the 

 trills and quavers of the first part of the bird-song, 

 like a long arc or parabola of sound. To my men- 

 tal vision it rose far up against the blue, and turned 

 sharply downward again and finished in more trills 

 and quavers. I had never before heard anything 

 like it. It was the usual long, silvery note in the 

 sparrow's song greatly increased; indeed, the whole 

 breath and force of the bird put in this note, so that 

 you caught little else than this silver loop of sound. 

 The bird remained in one locality — the bushy cor- 

 ner of a field — the whole season. He indulged in 

 the ordinary sparrow song, also. I had repeatedly 

 had my eye upon him when he changed from one 

 to the other. 



And now here he is again, just a year after, in 

 the same place, singing the same remarkable song, 

 capturing my ear with the same exquisite lasso of 



