236 2N AUTUMN. 



boldly in the face, and twittered " Good morn- 

 ing." It was worth all the drawbacks of being 

 a temporary hermit to be greeted so cordially. 

 It is true the woods are never quite deserted, 

 and yet it is not in them that birds most con- 

 gregate ; but here, this day, were more birds 

 immediately about me than I ever saw before. 

 More tree-sparrows directly from Canada than 

 I saw in all my tramps there two months ago ; 

 and certainly more kinglets than I ever saw be- 

 fore. The chilly northeast storm doubtless 

 had something to do with this abundance of 

 birds, but this matters not. Here were birds in 

 abundance. What can they teach me ? 



To think that with one glance of the eye 

 more Canadian sparrows could be seen than I 

 found in all my Canadian tramps two months 

 ago ! And they had all tjie freshness, too, of 

 this brisk October morning. There was no 

 listlessness, however long their journey may 

 have been. Snap crackle, these crisp words 

 best describe their songs and movements ; and 

 when life snaps and crackles, whether it is our 

 own or that of other creatures, it is life worth 

 living. So marked is the difference between 

 bird life now as compared with what we see of it 

 in May that the same species are scarcely to be 

 recognized as such. This is peculiarly true when 

 the spring and autumn plumage are different, as 



