his age. I hoped he would fall
into the hands of no worse enemy than myself, but the chances seemed
against him. The first few days after quitting the nest must be full of
perils for such helpless innocents.

For the credit of my own sex I was pleased to notice that it was the
father-bird who manifested the deepest concern and the readiest wit, not
to say the greatest courage; but I am obliged in candor to acknowledge
that this feature of the case surprised me not a little.

In what language shall I speak of the song of these familiar myrtle
warblers, so that my praise may correspond in some degree with the
gracious and beautiful simplicity of the strain itself? For music to be
heard constantly, right under one's window, it could scarcely be
improved; sweet, brief, and remarkably unobtrusive, without sharpness or
emphasis; a trill not altogether unlike the pine-creeping warbler's, but
less matter-of-fact and business-like. I used to listen to it before I
rose in the morning, and it was to be heard at intervals all day long.
Occasionally it was given in an absent-minded, meditative way, in a kind
of half-voice, as if the happy creature had no thought of what he was
doing. Then it was at its best, but one needed to be near the singer.

In a clearing back of the hotel, but surrounded by the forest, were
always a goodly company of birds, among the rest a family of
yellow-bellied woodpeckers; and in a second similar place were
white-throated sparrows, Maryland yellow-throats, and chestnut-sided
warblers, the last two feeding their young. Immature warblers are a
puzzling set. The birds themselves have no difficulty, I suppose; but
seeing young and old together, and noting how unlike they are, I have
before now been reminded of Launcelot Gobbo's saying, "It is a wise
father that knows his own child."

While traversing the woods between these two clearings I saw, as I
thought, a chimney swift fly out of the top of a tree which had been
broken off at a height of twenty-five or thirty feet. I stopped, and
pretty soon the thing was repeated; but even then I was not quick enough
to be certain whether the bird really came from the stump or only out of
the forest behind it. Accordingly, after sounding the trunk to make sure
it was hollow, I sat down in a clump of raspberry bushes, where I should
be sufficiently concealed, and awaited further developments. I waited
and waited, while the mosquitoes, seeing how sheltered I was from t