100 BIRDS AND POETS 



■without success. " It is in all the forests, from 

 spring to fall," lie says in his letter, " and never 

 but on the tops of the tallest trees, from which it 

 perpetually serenades us with some of the sweetest 

 notes, and as clear as those of the nightingale. I 

 have followed it for miles, without ever but once 

 getting a good view of it. It is of the size and 

 make of the mockingbird, lightly thrush- colored on 

 the back, and a grayish white on the breast and 

 belly. Mr. Eandolph, my son-in-law, was in pos- 

 session of one which had been shot by a neighbor, " 

 etc. Randolph pronounced it a flycatcher, which 

 was a good way wide of the mark. Jeflferson must 

 have seen only the female, after all his tramp, from 

 his description of the color ; but he was doubtless fol- 

 lowing his own great thoughts more than the bird, 

 else he would have had an earlier view. The bird 

 was not a new one, but was well known then as the 

 ground-robin. The President put Wilson on the 

 wrong scent by his erroneous description, and it was 

 a long time before the latter got at the truth of the 

 case. But Jefferson's letter is a good sample of 

 those which specialists often receive from intelligent 

 persons who have seen or heard something in their 

 line very curious or entirely new, and who set the 

 man of science agog by a description of the supposed 

 novelty, — a description that generally fits the facts 

 of the case about as well as your coat fits the chair- 

 back. Strange and curious things in the air, and 

 in the water, and in the earth beneath, are seen 

 every day except by those who are looking for them, 



