A DAY’S OUTING IN SEAROH OF THE ARBUTUS. 49 
%. 
vireos were mingling with these louder strains. It was 
the first time I had heard them this spring, though 
every day since, I have heard their cheerful songs in 
the elms along the city streets. In the upper Letch- 
worth woods I occasionally hear the strange call of the 
white-eyed vireo. This call consists of three notes 
something like “it is queer,” the last syllable strongly 
accented and much prolonged. The scarlet tanagers, 
that for several seasons past, by their beauty and sweet 
songs, have added such a charm to the surroundings, 
failed to come again this year. Probably some misera- 
ble taxidermist could tell, if he would, the cause of 
their detention. The grove back of the hotel had been 
explored by earlier arbutus gatherers, who had already 
picked and pulled up too much of these now rapidly 
disappearing plants. The lavish waste was apparent 
by the number of vines and half withered flowers 
scattered about in the track of the wasteful and 
thoughtless botanists. But I remembered some wild 
secluded nooks across the river unknown to most excur- 
sionists, where I was sure to find without difficulty all 
that I wished. Soon after dinner these retired nooks 
among the hemlocks and undergrowth of chestnuts were 
reached, and the sought treasures greeted us on every 
side, beautiful blossoms loading the air with a delicious 
fragrance, pleasing alike the senses of smell and sight. 
The arbutus is inimitably sweet, having a wild, 
woodsy fragrance, aromatic and spicy, strongest of 
birch and wintergreen, and suggestive of other more 
delicate odors not easily analyzed. 
