64: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



other road than that up Big Spring I had climbed the previous 

 day, there were almost no birds, though here a nest unburnt, 

 some four feet above the burnt ground, told that earlier a 

 Thrasher frequented this part of Turkey Knob. On my way 

 down to Pleasant Ridge I saw only one Chewink in the brush. 

 One Flicker flew over and all the way the Barn Swallows swept 

 about. Once, still further down, when I was well out of the 

 burnt area, the fall note of a Bluebird fell to me from far above, 

 and below the Bockmeyer farm a Jay called. I saw no other 

 birds until I was home again, where the usual dooryard com- 

 panions were still about. It may have been only a coincidence, 

 but it seemed indeed strange that this day, as the day before, I 

 saw more birds in smoking woods, just fire-swept, than in 

 places seemingly much more favorable to them. It was not the 

 first time that experience upset for me preconceived ornitholog- 

 ical ideas, but it was the most decided instance of such upsetting 

 this summer, and the memory of it, with that of the Logcock 

 against sunset skies, has fastened itself upon me as lasting 

 among all the little avian adventures of the summer. 



