AT HOME 347 



tulip trees. In the hot June days the indigo birds are 

 especially in evidence among the singers around Wash- 

 ington ; they do not mind the heat at all, but perch in the 

 tops of little trees in the full glare of the sun, and chant 

 their not very musical, but to my ears rather pleasing, 

 song throughout the long afternoons. This June two new 

 guests came to the White House in the shape of two little 

 saw-whet owls; little bits of fellows, with round heads, 

 and no head tufts, or " ears." I think they were the 

 young of the year; they never uttered the saw-whet 

 sound, but made soft snoring noises. They always ap- 

 peared after nightfall, when we were sitting on the south 

 porch, in the warm, starlit darkness. They were fear- 

 less and unsuspicious. Sometimes they flew noiselessly to 

 and fro, and seemingly caught big insects on the wing. 

 At other times they would perch on the iron awning- 

 bars, directly overhead. Once one of them perched over 

 one of the windows, and sat motionless, looking exactly 

 like an owl of Pallas Athene. 



At Sagamore Hill we like to have the wood-folk and 

 field-folk familiar; but there are necessary bounds to such 

 familiarity where chickens are kept for use and where 

 the dogs are valued family friends. The rabbits and gray 

 squirrels are as plenty as ever. The flying squirrels and 

 chipmunks still hold their own; so do the muskrats in 

 the marshes. The woodchucks, which we used to watch 

 as we sat in rocking-chairs on the broad veranda, have 

 disappeared; but recently one has made himself a home 

 under the old barn, where we are doing our best to pro- 

 tect him. A mink which lived by the edge of the bay 



