eared
not to mind the "no-see-ems." I was further annoyed by some little
irregularity on my side of the couch. The chambermaid had not beaten
it up well. One huge lump refused to be mollified, and each attempt to
adapt it up some natural hollow in my own body brought only a moment's
relief. But at last I got the better of this also and slept. Late in
the night I woke up, just in time to hear a golden-crowned thrush sing
in a tree near by. It sang as loud and cheerily as at midday, and I
thought myself, after all, quite in luck. Birds occasionally sing at
night, just as the cock crows. I have heard the hairbird, and the note
of the kingbird; and the ruffed grouse frequently drums at night.

At the first faint signs of day a wood thrush sang, a few rods below
us. Then after a little delay, as the gray light began to grow around,
thrushes broke out in full song in all parts of the woods. I thought I
had never before heard them sing so sweetly. Such a leisurely, golden
chant!--it consoled us for all we had undergone. It was the first
thing in order,--the worms were safe till after this morning chorus. I
judged that the birds roosted but a few feet from the ground. In fact,
a bird in all cases roosts where it builds, and the wood thrush
occupies, as it were, the first story of the woods.

There is something singular about the distribution of the wood
thrushes. At an earlier stage of my observations I should have been
much surprised at finding them in these woods. Indeed, I had stated in
print on two occasions that the wood thrush was not found in the
higher lands of the Catskills, but that the hermit thrush and the
veery, or Wilson's thrush, were common. It turns out that the
statement is only half true. The wood thrush is found also, but is
much more rare and secluded in its habits than either of the others,
being seen only during the breeding season on remote mountains, and
then only on their eastern and southern slopes. I have never yet in
this region found the bird spending the season in the near and
familiar woods, which is directly contrary to observations I have made
in other parts of the state. So different are the habits of birds in
different localities.

As soon as it was fairly light we were up and ready to resume our
march. A small bit of bread and butter and a swallow or two of whiskey
was all we had for breakfast that morning. Our supply of each was very
limited, and we were anxious to save a little of both,