14 AT THE NORTH OF BEARCAMP WATER. 
and its tawny sister the pine sap (Monotropa 
hypopitys). The wintergreens are strong, posi¬ 
tive herbs with rich pungent flavor, but the pale 
parasitic plants are mere negations* They are 
the “poor relations’’ among flowers, content to 
draw their sustenance from others, while show¬ 
ing no color, giving out no perfume, attracting 
no butterflies, and not even daring to face the 
blue sky until they are dead. 
The oven-bird stepped primly about upon her 
neat carpet of dry leaves, the red-eyed vireo 
preached his perpetual homily from the tree- 
tops, a young Cooper’s hawk screamed shrilly 
in the distance, and two inquisitive red-capped 
sapsuckers hitched up and down tree-trunks near 
me, while I hooted at them after the manner 
of my barred owls. A grouse had been wallow¬ 
ing among the leaves, and had left a round hol¬ 
low in the dust with five discarded feathers and 
the prints of her feet to show that she had been 
there. Rana sylvatica , the wood-frog, betrayed 
himself by leaping over the dry beech leaves. I 
followed him quickly as he sought to elude me. 
Not only were his leaps long, but his skill in 
doubling was something marvelous. His second 
jump was generally at right angles with the 
first, and thrice he no sooner struck the ground 
than he turned and rebounded upon his tracks, 
so that he passed over or between my feet. 
