326 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



of our zone. There is warmth in the pewee's strain, but 

 this bird's colors and his note tell of Brazil. 



May 29, 1853. At A. Hosmer's hill on the Union 

 Turnpike I see the tanager hoarsely warbling in the 

 shade ; the surprising red bird, a small morsel of Brazil, 

 advanced picket of that Brazilian army, — parrot-like. 

 But no more shall we see ; it is only an affair of out- 

 posts. It appears as if he loved to contrast himself with 

 the green of the forest. 



May 23, 1854. We soon get through with Nature. 

 She excites an expectation which she cannot satisfy. 

 The merest child which has rambled into a copsewood 

 dreams of a wilderness so wild and strange and inex- 

 haustible as Nature can never show him. The red-bird 

 which I saw on my companion's string on election days 1 

 I thought but the outmost sentinel of the wild, immor- 

 tal camp, — of the wild and dazzling infantry of the 

 wilderness, — that the deeper woods abounded with red- 

 der birds still ; but, now that I have threaded all our 

 woods and waded the swamps, I have never yet met with 

 his compeer, still less his wilder kindred. The red-bird 

 which is the last of Nature is but the first of God. The 



1 [" Old election da; " in Massachusetts came on the last Wednesday 

 in May. It was the day when the Legislature met, to organize, to count 

 the vote for governor and lieutenant-governor, and to hear an " election 

 sermon " in one of the Boston churches. The actual voting for gov- 

 ernor, lieutenant-governor, and State senators came on the first Monday 

 in April, and the representatives to the General Court were elected at 

 different times in the different towns. The last of these May " elec- 

 tions " was held in 1831, hut " old election day " was observed as a sort 

 of holiday for years after, and it was the custom to conduct shooting- 

 matches on that day, when birds of all kinds were shot indiscriminately. 

 See p. 358.] 



