1386 WAKE-ROBIN 
started out here and there, and flew across the little 
bends and points. Among some pines just beyond 
the boundary, saw a number of American gold- 
finches, in their gray winter dress, pecking the pine- 
cones. A golden-crowned kinglet was there also, a 
little tuft of gray feathers, hopping about as restless 
as a spirit, Had the old pine-trees food delicate 
enough for him also? Farther on, in some low 
open woods, saw many sparrows, — the fox, white- 
throated, white-crowned, the Canada, the song, the 
swamp, —all herding together along the warm and 
sheltered borders. To my surprise, saw a chewink 
also, and the yellow-rumped warbler. The purple 
finch was there likewise, and the Carolina wren and 
brown creeper. In the higher, colder woods not a 
bird was to be seen. Returning, near sunset, across 
the eastern slope of a hill which overlooked the 
city, was delighted to see a number of grass finches 
or vesper sparrows, — birds which will be forever 
associated in my mind with my father’s sheep pas- 
tures. They ran before me, now flitting a pace or 
two, now skulking in the low stubble, just as I had 
observed them when a boy.” 
A month later, March 4th, is this note: — 
“After the second memorable inauguration of 
President Lincoln, took my first trip of the season. 
The afternoon was very clear and warm, — real ver- 
nal sunshine at last, though the wind roared like a 
lion over the woods. It seemed novel enough to 
find within two miles of the White House a simple 
woodsman chopping away as if no President was 
