IN TEE P AUG US WOODS. 
253 
all their meanderings, I think the aggregate of 
miles traversed by the rabbits of that locality 
would have been found to rival the railway 
mileage of New Hampshire. From time to 
time we stopped to call birds to us by the aid 
of my whistles. I think I called eight or nine 
times, and in each instance birds appeared 
promptly. Usually pine finches came first, 
whirling through the upper air like burnt paper 
driven by the wind. As they passed over us, 
they would catch the sound of the whistles more 
distinctly and begin a series of undulatory cir¬ 
cles. Then one or two would drop straight 
down into a leafless tree, or upon the tips of 
the spruces, and the rest would follow them, 
sometimes twenty going into one tree. Their 
sweet queryings filled the air, and drew other 
birds to the focus of sound, among others a 
number of purple finches and a white - bellied 
nuthatch. Kinglets came very near to us when 
we were well hidden; so near that the brilliant 
color on their dainty heads could be seen with 
perfect distinctness. There were more chicka¬ 
dees in these woods than in the other places we 
had visited, and I examined them all with great 
care, hoping to find a Hudson Bay titmouse. 
Two flocks of the common species came, and 
produced no northern birds, but at a third rally 
of nuthatches, finches, and kinglets, a strange 
