IN THE HEMLOCKS 



privacy was undisturbed. I open his beak and find 

 the inside yellow as gold. I was prepared to find it 

 inlaid with pearls and diamonds, or to see an angel 

 issue from it. 



He is not much in the books. Indeed, I am ac- 

 quainted with scarcely any writer on ornithology 

 whose head is not muddled on the subject of our 

 three prevailing song-thrushes, confounding either 

 their figures or their songs. A writer in the "At- 

 lantic " * gravely tells us the wood thrush is some- 

 times called the hermit, and then, after describing 

 the song of the hermit with great beauty and cor- 

 rectness, coolly ascribes it to the veery! The new 

 Cyclopaedia, fresh from the study of Audubon, says 

 the hermit's song consists of a single plaintive note, 

 and that the veery's resembles that of the wood 

 thrush ! The hermit thrush may be easily identified 

 by his color; his back being a clear olive-brown 

 becoming rufous on his rump and tail. A quill 

 from his wing placed beside one from his tail on a 

 dark ground presents quite a marked contrast. 



I walk along the old road, and note the tracks in 



the thin layer of mud. When do these creatures 



travel here? I have never yet chanced to meet 



one. Here a partridge has set its foot ; there, a 



woodcock; here, a squirrel or mink; there, a skunk; 



there, a fox. What a clear, nervous track reynard 



makes! how easy to distinguish it from that of a 



l For December, 1858. 



91 



