168 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
minutes before I get him to rise, and then he 
goes off in the same leisurely manner, stroking 
the air with his wings, and now making a great 
circle back in his course, so that you cannot 
tell which way he is bound. By standing so 
long motionless in these places they may, per¬ 
chance, accomplish two objects, L <3., catch pass¬ 
ing fish (suckers ?) like a heron, and escape the 
attention of man. His utmost motions were to 
plume himself once, and turn his head about. 
If he did not move his head he would look like 
a decoy. 
March 18, 1858. 7 A. M. By river. Al¬ 
most every bush has its song-sparrow this morn¬ 
ing, and their tinkling strains are heard on all 
sides. You see them just hopping under a bush 
or into some other covert as you go by, turning 
with a jerk this way and that; or they flit 
away just above the ground, which they resem¬ 
ble. Theirs is the prettiest strain I have heard 
yet. M-is already out in his boat for all 
day with his white hound in the prow, bound 
up the river for musquash, etc., but the river 
is hardly high enough to drive them out. 
P. M. To Fair Haven Hill via Hubbard’s 
Bathing Place. How much more habitable a 
few birds make the fields ! At the end of the 
winter, when the fields are bare, and there is 
nothing to relieve the monotony of withered 
