80 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
wor , and then other slight warblings as if farther 
off. Was surprised to see the bird within seven 
or eight rods on the top of an oak on the or¬ 
chard’s edge under the hill. But he appeared 
silent while I heard others faintly warbling and 
twittering far in the orchard. When he flew I 
heard no more, and then I suspected that he had 
been ventriloquizing, as if he hardly dared open 
his mouth yet while there was so much winter 
left. It is an overcast and moist, but rather 
warm, afternoon. He revisits the apple trees 
and appears to find some worms. Probably not 
till now was his food to be found abundantly. 
Saw some fuzzy gnats in the air.The 
river channel is nearly open everywhere. Saw 
on the alders by the river side front of Hil¬ 
dreth’s a song-sparrow quirking its tail. It flew 
across the river to the willows and soon I heard 
its well-known dry tchip-tchip. 
March 7,1858. Walking by the river this P. 
M., it being half open, and the waves running 
pretty high, the black waves, yellowish where 
they break over ice, I inhale a fresh meadowy 
spring odor from them which is a little exciting. 
It is like the fragrance of tea to an old tea- 
drinker. 
March 7, 1859. 6^- a. m. To Hill. I came 
out to hear a spring bird, the ground generally 
covered with snow yet, and the channel of the 
