d a very pretty family picture they made, in
their snuggery of overthrown trees, the father breaking out into a song
once in a while, or helping his mate to feed the young, who were already
able to pick up a good part of their own living. Before long, however,
one of the pair caught sight of the intruder, and then all at once the
scene changed. The old birds chattered and scolded, bobbing up and down
in their own ridiculous manner (although, considered by itself, this
gesture is perhaps no more laughable than some which other orators are
applauded for making), and soon the place was silent and to all
appearance deserted.

Notwithstanding Owl's Head is in Canada, the birds, as I soon found,
were not such as characterize the "Canadian Fauna." Olive-backed
thrushes, black-poll warblers, crossbills, pine linnets, and Canada
jays, all of which I had myself seen in the White Mountains, were none
of them here; but instead, to my surprise, were wood thrushes, scarlet
tanagers, and wood pewees,--the two latter species in comparative
abundance. My first wood thrush was seen for a moment only, and although
he had given me a plain sight of his back, I concluded that my eyes must
once more have played me false. But within a day or two, when half-way
down the mountain path, I heard the well-known strain ringing through
the woods. It was unquestionably that, and nothing else, for I sat down
upon a convenient log and listened for ten minutes or more, while the
singer ran through all those inimitable variations which infallibly
distinguish the wood thrush's song from every other. And afterward, to
make assurance doubly sure, I again saw the bird in the best possible
position, and at short range. On looking into the subject, indeed, I
learned that his being here was nothing wonderful; since, while it is
true, as far as the sea-coast is concerned, that he seldom ventures
north of Massachusetts, it is none the less down in the books that he
does pass the summer in Lower Canada, reaching it, probably, by way of
the valley of the St. Lawrence.

A few robins were about the hotel, and I saw a single veery in the
woods, but the only members of the thrush family that were present in
large numbers were the hermits. These sang everywhere and at all hours.
On the summit, even at mid-day, I was invariably serenaded by them. In
fact they seemed more abundant there than anywhere else; but they were
often to be heard by the lake-side, and in our apple