68 BY-WAYS AND BIRD-NOTES. 



new. You will understand how it was recalled 

 by the trifling incident above recorded. 



' My way lay due east for nearly a mile, with 

 the meadow-larks whistling in the fields on my 

 right, and the woodpeckers chattering on the 

 fence-posts to the left. The woodpeckers 

 (those fellows half while and half black and 

 hooded in scarlet) had just arrived from the 

 South, and appeared overjoyed with their sur- 

 roundings. They looked very clean in their 

 shining jet coats and snow under-garments. 

 A toll-gate stood at the end of the lane. I 

 whirled noiselessly through it before the wo- 

 man who kept it could decide whether my 

 vehicle was down on her list, and ran over a 

 little hill just as the sun cleared the tree-tops 

 in the east. A small boy was riding a big- 

 wheeled plough, to which three fine sleek 

 horses were working abreast. The musty 

 odor of the fresh-turned soil was very pleasant. 

 Blue-birds were dropping into the new furrow 

 behind the plough to get the larvae of various 

 insects exposed there. Two sparrow-hawks 

 were wheeling in small circles, some fifty feet 

 high, watching for field-mice, or possibly intent 

 on taking one of the blue-birds unaware. 

 There was a worm-fence on one side of the 

 road and the corners were literally carpeted 

 with wild blue-violets. What a pity it is that 

 these beautiful flowers have no perfume ! The 

 lack seems to take a great deal from their 

 value when one discovers it. It is almost like 

 finding that a very musical song has no mean- 

 ing in its sonorous phrases. I now had some 

 stiff work going up a hill on a curve, and then 

 came a smooth bit of coasting, followed by a 

 short stretch through level heavy sand ; then 



