S/i ■i'/ojr 
A hen Partridge has been sitiing on nine eggs for a 
week or more in the swamp behind Ball’s Hill. The nest is 
raised a foot or more above the ground among the stems of a 
cluster of alders. Our road runs within ten feet of it. At 
first the bird flew every time we approached and at 20 yards 
or more. Now she allows us to pass, provided we make no 
, the Gray-cheeked 
Of the Hylocichlae 
Thrush is the most dignified and graceful and the Hermit the 
least so. The latter bird has two habits which impress me 
as somewhat vulgar, viz. that of clucking and that of 
throwing up his tail. The Gray-cheek is the real aristocrat 
of an aristocratic family. His silent reserve goes wfill with 
his unconscious grace of movement and firm, proud bearing. 
Some of his poses, especially when he is on the ground, are 
strikingly picturesque. He is never awkward and no shyer 
than befits a bird who evidently prefers not to be rudely 
sta.red at by men carrying opera glasses. I have been seeing 
much of him here of late, especially in the woods below the 
house. East evening I watched a bird feeding in the path. 
He moved very swiftly along the smooth gravel by a succession 
of long springy bounds, very easy and graceful. As twilight 
was falling he called twice. 
(The Black-throated 31ue Warblers at Ball* s Hill to-day 
were in oak scrub. They kept very near the ground, flitting 
and hopping among the stems of the small trees. Their 
movements were slower and less animated than those of most 
/I 
