144 WAKE-ROBIN 
same time, and are clearly distinguished by their 
timid yeaps. On dark, cloudy nights the birds 
seem confused by the lights of the city, and appar- 
ently wander about above it. 
In the spring the same curious incident is re- 
peated, though but few voices can be identified. I 
make out the snowbird, the bobolink, the war- 
blers, and on two nights during the early part of 
May I heard very clearly the call of the sandpipers. 
Instead of the bobolink, one encounters here, in 
the June meadows, the black-throated bunting, a 
bird closely related to the sparrows and a very 
persistent if not a very musical songster. He 
perches upon the fences and upon the trees by the 
roadside, and, spreading his tail, gives forth his 
harsh strain, which may be roughly worded thus: 
fscep fsep, fee fee fee. Like all sounds associated 
with early summer, it soon has a charm to the ear 
quite independent of its intrinsic merits. 
Outside of the city limits, the great point of 
interest to the rambler and lover of nature is the 
Rock Creek region. | "Rock Creek is a large, rough, 
rapid stream, which has its source in the interior 
of Maryland, and flows into the Potomac between 
Washington and Georgetown. Its course, for five 
or six miles out of Washington, is marked by great 
diversity of scenery. Flowing in a deep valley, 
which now and then becomes a wild gorge with 
overhanging rocks and high precipitous headlands, 
for the most part wooded; here reposing in long, 
dark reaches, there sweeping and hurrying around 
