GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS 415 



morning, though, it may be fair. An hour or two later 

 it is comparative silence. The awaking of the birds, a 

 tumultuous twittering. 



Nov. 8, 1853. Birds generally wear the russet dress 

 of nature at this season. They have their fall no less 

 than the plants ; the bright tints depart from their 

 foliage or feathers, and they flit past like withered 

 leaves in rustling flocks. The sparrow is a withered 

 leaf. 



Dec. 5, 1853. Saw and heard a downy woodpecker 

 on an apple tree. Have not many winter birds, like 

 this and the chickadee, a sharp note like tinkling glass 

 or icicles ? The chip of the tree sparrow, also, and the 

 whistle of the shrike, are they not wintry in the same 

 way ? And the sonorous hooting owl ? But not so the 

 jay and Fringilla linaria, and still less the crow. 



Feb. 14, 1854. In Stow's wood, by the Deep Cut, 

 hear the gnah gnah of the white-breasted, black-capped 

 nuthatch. I went up the bank and stood by the fence. 

 A little family of titmice gathered about me, search- 

 ing for their food both on the ground and on the trees, 

 with great industry and intentness, and now and then 

 pursuing each other. There were two nuthatches at 

 least, talking to each other. One hung with his head 

 down on a large pitch pine, pecking the bark for a 

 long time, — leaden blue above, with a black cap and 

 white breast. It uttered almost constantly a faint but 

 sharp quivet or creak, difficult to trace home, which ap- 

 peared to be answered by a baser and louder gnah gnah 

 from the other. A downy woodpecker also, with the 

 red spot on his hind head and his cassock open behind, 



