190 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
a sunny, calm, serene winter day is pronounced 
spring, or reminds us of it. And even the first 
pleasant spring day, perhaps, we walk with our 
greatcoat buttoned up, and gloves on. 
Trying the other day to imitate the honking 
of geese, I found myself flapping my sides with 
my elbows, and uttering something like snow- 
ack with a nasal twang and twist of my head, 
and I produced the note so perfectly in the 
opinion of the hearers, that I thought I might 
possibly draw a flock down. 
We notice the color of the water especially at 
this season, w T hen ifc is recently revealed (and 
in the fall), because there is little color else¬ 
where. It shows best in a clear air, contrast¬ 
ing with the russet shores. 
March 20, 1858. A. M. By river. The tree- 
sparrow is perhaps the sweetest and most me¬ 
lodious warbler at present and for some days. 
It is peculiar, too, for singing in concert along 
the hedge-rows, much like a canary, especially 
in the mornings, very clear, sweet, melodious 
notes, between a twitter and a warble, of which 
it is hard to catch the strain, for you commonly 
hear many at once. The note of the Fringilla 
hiemalis, or chill-till, is a jiugle, with also a 
shorter and dryer crackling chip as it flits by. 
At Hubbard’s wall how handsome the wil¬ 
low catkins ! Those wonderfully bright silvery 
