AN ANT-THRUSH 275 



waves. In one place, in mid-stream, a pyramidal rock 

 thrust itself six feet above the surface of the river. On 

 the banks we found fresh Indian sign. 



At home in Vermont, Cherrie is a farmer, with a farm 

 of six hundred acres, most of it woodland. As we sat at 

 the foot of the rapids, watching for the last dugouts with 

 their naked paddlers to swing into sight round the bend 

 through the white water, we talked of the northern spring 

 that was just beginning. He sells cream, eggs, poultry, 

 potatoes, honey, occasionally pork and veal ; but at this 

 season it was the time for the maple-sugar crop. He has 

 a sugar orchard, where he taps twelve hundred trees, and 

 hopes soon to tap as many more in addition. Said 

 Cherrie : " It's a busy time now for Fred Rice " — Fred 

 Rice is the hired man, and in sugar time the Cherrie 

 boys help him with enthusiasm, and, moreover, are paid 

 with exact justice for the work they do. There is much 

 wild life about the farm, although it is near Brattleboro. 

 One night in early spring a bear left his tracks near the 

 sugar-house ; and now and then in summer Cherrie has 

 had to sleep in the garden to keep the deer away from 

 the beans, cabbages, and beets. 



There was not much bird life in the forest, but Cherrie 

 kept getting species new to the collection. At this camp 

 he shot an interesting little ant-thrush. It was the size 

 of a warbler, jet-black, with white under-surfaces of the 

 wings and tail, white on the tail-feathers, and a large 

 spot of white on the back, normally almost concealed, 

 the feathers on the back being long and fluffy. When 

 he shot the bird, a male, it was showing off before a 

 dull-coloured little bird, doubtless the female ; and the 

 chief feature of the display was this white spot on the 

 back. The white feathers were raised and displayed so 

 that the spot flashed hke the " chrysanthemum " on a 



