rateful for, this diversity of habit.
We could not spare the swifts from our villages, and it would be too bad
to lose them out of the Northern forests. May they live and thrive, both
parties of them.

I am glad, also, for the obscurity which attends their annual coming and
going. Whether they hibernate or migrate, the secret is their own; and
for my part, I wish them the wit to keep it. In this age, when the world
is in such danger of becoming omniscient before the time, it is good to
have here and there a mystery in reserve. Though it be only a little
one, we may well cherish it as a treasure.

FOOTNOTES:

[25] The guide-book allows two hours for the mile and a half on Owl's
Head, while it gives only an hour and a half for the three miles up
Mount Clinton--from the Crawford House.

[26] To bear out what has been said in the text concerning the abundance
of ferns at Owl's Head, I subjoin a list of the species observed;
premising that the first interest of my trip was not botanical, and that
I explored but a very small section of the woods:--

_Polypodium vulgare._
_Adiantum pedatum._
_Pteris aquilina._
_Asplenium Trichomanes._
_A. thelypteroides._
_A. Filix-foemina._
_Phegopteris polypodioides._
_P. Dryopteris._
_Aspidium marginale._
_A. spinulosum_, variety undetermined.
_A. spinulosum_, var. _dilatatum_.
_A. Goldianum._
_A. acrostichoides._
_A. aculeatum_, var. _Braunii_.
_Cystopteris bulbifera._
_C. fragilis._
_Onoclea struthiopteris._
_O. sensibilis._
_Woodsia Ilvensis._
_Dicksonia punctilobula._
_Osmunda regalis._
_O. Claytoniana._
_O. cinnamomea._
_Botrychium lanceolatum._
_B. matricariaefolium._
_B. ternatum._
_B. Virginianum._

[27] This bird (_Siurus naevius_) is remarkable for the promptness with
which he sets out on his autumnal journey, appearing in Eastern
Massachusetts early in August. Last year (1884) one was in my door-yard
on the morning of the 7th. I heard his loud chip, and looking out of the
window, saw him first on the ground and then in an ash-tree near a crowd
of house sparrows. The latter were scolding at him with their usual
cordiality, while he, on his part, seemed under some kind of
fascination, returning again and again to walk as closely as he dared
about the blustering crew. His curiosity was laughable. Evidently he
thought, considering what an ado the sparrows were making, that
something serious must be going on