248 AT THE NORTH OF BEARCAMP WATER. 
drilling into the trunk of the spruce. When 
he had inspected the tree to its highest part he 
flew several rods to rejoin his mate. 
At last the roads ended and we entered the 
remnant of dark forest which crowns the moun¬ 
tain. There was a chill in the gloomy shades. 
The snow was softer and deeper here. It cov¬ 
ered innumerable boulders closely wedged to¬ 
gether between the stems of the spruces. On 
the sides of these rocks we could see delicate 
mosses imprisoned in the ice and snow. At 
frequent intervals we encountered masses of 
fallen timber wrecked by hurricanes. Another 
obstacle to our ascent was the dense growth of 
young spruces which in places made walking 
almost impossible. In the edge of an open 
space in this forest we called together the birds 
by means of my whistle. A flock of juncos 
appeared in a pile of top wood; red-bellied nut¬ 
hatches came and clung head downwards on the 
nearest trunks and quanhed at us, kinglets bus¬ 
tled in, peeped at us, and bustled out, a dozen 
or more red crossbills alighted close above us 
and to our satisfaction made the note which 
had so puzzled us yesterday and which sounds 
like the robin’s alarm-note. Best of all, a flock 
of sixty pine siskins came into the nearest trees, 
and one or two of them came down to the level 
of our heads and questioned us plaintively. 
