214 THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 



meadow and entered the pasture made familiar 

 by a score of visits. There is always a newness 

 even in old paths, always something I have not 

 seen before, for flowers and birds are never 

 twice alike. 



What Nature lover cares whither an old and 

 weedy foot-path leads while out on a pleasure 

 hunt. The charm is in the path itself and what 

 it offers. If it is zizag about great boulders, 

 over hills and through swales, skirting groups 

 of alders and willows, following the brook, ap- 

 parently going nowhere, yet revealing new finds 

 or disclosing some old ones, it is enough. 



Standing on an old stump and looking about 

 I soon found new material for my note book, 

 and while making a sketch of a new flower and 

 jotting down its conditions and impressions, 

 there came a strange bird call and then its song 

 in most rapid notes, a little confusing at times 

 but so rich and flexible; it proved the Orchard 

 Oriole, a rare bird in our state, not so gaily 

 dressed as his cousin the Baltimore Oriole, but 

 his song is far richer in tone and more finished 

 in character. My field glass brought him plainly 

 to sight and his song seemed the richer. Over- 

 head flew a Crow with two Kingbirds in chase. 

 Poor fellow, he was utterly worsted, his dodg- 

 ings were clumsy and useless, they plucked him 



