it would be a
kindness to tell me a thing or two. I made bold to intimate that the
bird had a barred tail, and must, I thought, be one of the hawks. He did
not dispute the point; and, in truth, he was a modest and well-mannered
young gentleman. I liked him in that he knew both how to converse and
how to be silent; without which latter qualification, indeed, not even
an angel would be a desirable mountain-top companion. He gave me
information about the surrounding country such as I was very glad to
get; and in the case of the hawks my advantage over him, if any, was
mainly in this,--that my lack of knowledge partook somewhat more fully
than his of the nature of Lord Bacon's "learned ignorance, that knows
itself."

Whatever the birds may have been, "mountain hawks," "fish-hawks," or
duck-hawks, their aerial evolutions, as seen from the summit, were
beautiful beyond description. One day in particular three of them were
performing together. For a time they chased each other this way and that
at lightning speed, screaming wildly, though whether in sport or anger I
could not determine. Then they floated majestically, high above us,
while now and then one would set his wings and shoot down, down, till
the precipitous side of the mountain hid him from view; only to reappear
a minute afterward, soaring again, with no apparent effort, to his
former height.

One of these noisy fellows served me an excellent turn. It was the last
day of my visit, and I had just taken my farewell look at the enchanting
prospect from the summit, when I heard the lisp of a brown creeper. This
was the first of his kind that I had seen here, and I stopped
immediately to watch him, in hopes he would sing. Creeper-like he tried
one tree after another in quick succession, till at last, while he was
exploring a dead spruce which had toppled half-way to the ground, a hawk
screamed loudly overhead. Instantly the little creature flattened
himself against the trunk, spreading his wings to their very utmost and
ducking his head until, though I had been all the while eying his
motions through a glass at the distance of only a few rods, it was
almost impossible to believe that yonder tiny brown fleck upon the bark
was really a bird and not a lichen. He remained in this posture for
perhaps a minute, only putting up his head two or three times to peer
cautiously round. Unless I misjudged him, he did not discriminate
between the screech of the hawk and the _ank, an