410 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



here and there in the woods or pastures, and occasional 

 groves of noble tulip trees in the many stretches of forest; 

 these tulip trees growing to a much larger size than on 

 Long Island. As at Washington, among the most plen- 

 tiful flowers are the demure little Quaker Ladies, which 

 are not found at Sagamore Hill where we also miss 

 such northern forms as the wake robin and the other 

 trilliums, which used to be among the characteristic 

 marks of spring-time at Albany. At Pine Knot the red 

 bug, dogwood and laurel are plentiful; though in the 

 case of the last two no more so than at Sagamore Hill. 

 The azalea its Knickerbocker name in New York was 

 pinkster grows and flowers far more luxuriantly than 

 on Long Island. The moccasin flower, the china-blue 

 Virginia cowslip with its pale pink buds, the blood-red 

 Indian pink, the painted columbine and many, many 

 other flowers somewhat less showy carpet the woods. 



The birds are, of course, for the most part the same as 

 on Long Island, but with some differences. These differ- 

 ences are, in part, due to the more southern locality; but 

 in part I cannot explain them, for birds will often be 

 absent from one place seemingly without any real reason. 

 Thus around us in Albemarle County song sparrows are 

 certainly rare and I have not seen savanna sparrows at 

 all ; but the other common sparrows, such as the chippy, 

 field sparrow, vesper sparrow, and grasshopper sparrow 

 abound; and in an open field where bind-weed morning 

 glories and evening primroses grew among the broom 

 sedge, I found some small grass-dwelling sparrows, which 

 with the exercise of some little patience I was able to 



