THE ORIOLE.— SNOW AND ICE. 
37 
mencing their feast before the buds are well open. From the mo- 
ment they arrive, you see them running about the apple branches* 
as if already on the watch, and so long as the trees are in bloom, 
you may hear their full, clear voices in the orchards at most hours 
of the day. Probably they like other flowers also, since the ap- 
ple-trees are not indigenous here, and they must have begun to 
feed upon some native blossoms of the forest ; they are occasion- 
<ally seen in the wild cherry-trees, and are said to be partial to 
the tulip-trees also; but these last do not grow in our neighbor- 
hood. Mr. Wilson says the Baltimore oriole is not found in the 
pine countries, and yet they are common birds here — regular mem- 
bers of our summer flock ; and we have remarked they are very 
often seen and heard among the pines of the churchyard ; it is 
quite a favorite haunt of theirs. 
The orchard oriole, a much plainer bird, is a stranger here, 
though common at no great distance. If they visit us at all, it 
must be rarely ; we have never yet seen them about the lake. 
Wednesday, \ 2th . — On one of the hills of Highborough, several 
miles from the village, there is a point where, almost every spring, 
a lingering snow-bank is seen long after the country generally 
looks pleasant and life-like. Some years it lies there in spite of 
warm rains, and south winds and sunshine, imtil after the first 
flowers and butterflies have appeared, Avhile other seasons it goes 
much earlier. Time gives greater consistency and powers of en- 
durance to ice and snow, just as a cold heart grows more obdu- 
rate with every fruitless attempt to soften its fountains ; old snow 
in particular, wears away very slowly — as slowly as an old preju- 
dice ! This handful of ice lying so late on Snow-Patch Hill, 
would doubtless prove, in a colder region, or among higher hills, 
