598 
A NATURAL HISTORY TOUR IN NORTH AMERICA. 
the carriage going over: at Newark we exchanged for locomotives, and soon got 
to Rahway, about ten miles further. Newark, Elizabethtown, and Rahway are 
all places of considerable trade in coals, and there are some manufactories in the 
latter: all these are rather irregularly built; the houses are mostly of wood. 
The country around is salt marsh, with some good pasture land ; in places scat¬ 
tered about are large rocks, almost rising into considerable hills. Veratrum 
nigrum grows in plenty among the rocks. The climate was more like our 
March than the end of April. I saw few birds, and fewer insects. 
We are now staying at the house of a friend, about two miles east of the city 
of Hudson : it is a most beautiful place, but how to describe it I know not. In 
looking from the wundow where I am now writing, the first object that attracts 
my notice is the gigantic range of the Catskill mountains, distant eighteen miles, 
'With their summits still covered with snow. The Hudson lies below, invisible 
from the house, and a gently rolling country extends from its shore. The tops of 
the hills are covered with Pine, Plickory, Oak, and other trees; and here and 
there is seen the genteel house of some opulent farmer, or the humbler dwelling 
of him Vv^ho has to depend on his own industry. Meadows not yet verdant, and 
arable land, fill up the space to the little river (Americe creels)^ which runs at 
the bottom of a steep orchard, belonging to the premises. The fruit trees are 
alive with birds. The day before yesterday I saw the first Blue-bird (Sialia 
Wilsonii. — Ed.) ; as he glanced between the trees in the sun, nothing could be 
more beautiful. A pair of these birds are now building in a hole in an old 
Apple-tree. They go and pull off Moss, and, returning with it, hang a moment 
, at the mouth of the hole before they enter. Sometimes they hover over the 
ground, and pick up an insect; but seem mostly to find their food on the 
trees. They are as tame as possible: their nest is not twenty yards from the 
window at which I am writing. Just now a pair of Baltimores were sitting on 
an Apple-tree, close to the corner of the house ; I went out and got right under 
them, and had a good view of them. 
Yesterday, whilst pinning Beetles, I saw some birds in a tree, by the side of 
the creek ; I took R. Foster s* telescope, and found them to be Golden-winged 
Woodpeckers, apparently two males and a female ; the males were twisting their 
heads, erecting their feathers on their crov/ns, and spreading their tails in a most 
odd manner. I used to think our English Green Woodpecker put itself into the 
oddest attitudes at such times; but ’tis nothing to the Golden-winged. At last 
the two males had a furious battle; after which one flew away, followed by the 
female, and the other remained behind. Just after this an Osprey passed like 
lightning along the creek, and perched on a large white Oak, close by. 
* Mr, Doubleday’s companion.—E d. 
