Chapter 15

The club-man, by common consent, was the first in the box that morning; but only a few ducks were moving, and he had lain there an hour before we marked a solitary bird approaching, and, after circling over the decoys, alighting a little beyond them. The sportsman sprang up as from the bed of the river, and the duck sprang up at the same time, and got away under fire. After a while my other companion went out; but the ducks passed by on the other side, and he had no shots. In the afternoon, remembering the robins, and that robins are game when one's larder is low, I set out alone for the pine bottoms, a mile or more distant. When one is loaded for robins, he may expect to see turkeys, and VICE VERSA. As I was walking carelessly on the borders of an old brambly field that stretched a long distance beside the pine woods, I heard a noise in front of me, and, on looking in that direction, saw a veritable turkey, with a spread tail, leaping along at a rapid rate. She was so completely the image of the barnyard fowl that I was slow to realize that here was the most notable game of that part of Virginia, for the sight of which sportsmen's eyes do water. As she was fairly on the wing, I sent my robin-shot after her; but they made no impression, and I stood and watched with great interest her long, level flight. As she neared the end of the clearing, she set her wings and sailed straight into the corner of the woods. I found no robins, but went back satisfied with having seen the turkey, and having had an experience that I knew would stir up the envy and the disgust of my companions. They listened with ill-concealed impatience, stamped the ground a few times, uttered a vehement protest against the caprice of fortune that always puts the game in the wrong place or the gun in the wrong hands, and rushed off in quest of that turkey. She was not where they looked, of course; and, on their return about sundown, when they had ceased to think about their game, she flew out of the top of a pine-tree not thirty rods from camp, and in full view of them, but too far off for a shot.

In my wanderings that afternoon, I came upon two negro shanties in a small triangular clearing in the woods; no road but only a footpath led to them. Three or four children, the eldest a girl of twelve, were about the door of one of them. I approached and asked for a drink of water. The girl got a glass and showed me to the spring near by.

"We's grandmover's daughter's chilern," she said, in reply to my inquiry. Their mother worked in Washington for "eighteen cents a month," and their grandmother took care of them.

Then I thought I would pump her about the natural history of the place.

"What was there in these woods,--what kind of animals,--any? "

"Oh, yes, sah, when we first come here to live in dese bottoms de possums and foxes and things were so thick you could hardly go out- o'-doors." A fox had come along one day right where her mother was washing, and they used to catch the chickens "dreadful."

"Were there any snakes?"

"Yes, sah; black snakes, moccasins, and doctors."

The doctor, she said, was a powerful ugly customer; it would get right hold of your leg as you were passing along, and whip and sting you to death. I hoped I should not meet any "doctors."

I asked her if they caught any rabbits.

"Oh, yes, we catches dem in 'gums.' "

"What are gums?" I asked.

"See dat down dare? Dat's a 'gum.' "

I saw a rude box-trap made of rough boards. It seems these traps, and many other things, such as beehives, and tubs, etc., are frequently made in the South from a hollow gum-tree; hence the name gum has come to have a wide application.

The ducks flew quite briskly that night; I could hear the whistle of their wings as I stood upon the shore indulging myself in listening. The ear loves a good field as well as the eye, and the night is the best time to listen, to put your ear to Nature's keyhole and see what the whisperings and the preparations mean.

"Dark night, that from the eye his function takes, The ear more quick of apprehension makes,"

says Shakespeare. I overheard some muskrats engaged in a very gentle and affectionate jabber beneath a rude pier of brush and earth upon which I was standing. The old, old story was evidently being rehearsed under there, but the occasional splashing of the ice-cold water made it seem like very chilling business; still we all know it is not. Our decoys had not been brought in, and I distinctly heard some ducks splash in among them. The sound of oar-locks in the distance next caught my ears. They were so far away that it took some time to decide whether or not they were approaching. But they finally grew more distinct,--the steady, measured beat of an oar in a wooden lock, a very pleasing sound coming over still, moonlit waters. It was an hour before the boat emerged into view and passed my post. A white, misty obscurity began to gather over the waters, and in the morning this had grown to be a dense fog. By early dawn one of my friends was again in the box, and presently his gun went bang! bang! then bang! came again from the second gun he had taken with him, and we imagined the water strewn with ducks. But he reported only one. It floated to him and was picked up, so we need not go out. In the dimness and silence we rowed up and down the shore in hopes of starting up a stray duck that might possibly decoy. We saw many objects that simulated ducks pretty well through the obscurity, but they failed to take wing on our approach. The most pleasing thing we saw was a large, rude boat, propelled by four colored oarsmen. It looked as if it might have come out of some old picture. Two oarsmen were seated in the bows, pulling, and two stood up in the stern, facing their companions, each working a long oar, bending and recovering and uttering a low, wild chant. The spectacle emerged from the fog on the one hand and plunged into it on the other.

Later in the morning, we were attracted by another craft. We heard it coming down upon us long before it emerged into view. It made a sound as of some unwieldy creature slowly pawing the water, and when it became visible through the fog the sight did not belie the ear. We beheld an awkward black hulk that looked as if it might have been made out of the bones of the first steamboat, or was it some Virginia colored man's study of that craft? Its wheels consisted each of two timbers crossing each other at right angles. As the shaft slowly turned, these timbers pawed and pawed the water. It hove to on the flats near our quarters, and a colored man came off in a boat. To our inquiry, he said with a grin that his craft was a "floating saw-mill."

After a while I took my turn in the box, and, with a life-preserver for a pillow, lay there on my back, pressed down between the narrow sides, the muzzle of my gun resting upon my toe and its stock upon my stomach, waiting for the silly ducks to come. I was rather in hopes they would not come, for I felt pretty certain that I could not get up promptly in such narrow quarters and deliver my shot with any precision. As nothing could be seen, and as it was very still, it was a good time to listen again. I was virtually under water, and in a good medium for the transmission of sounds. The barking of dogs on the Maryland shore was quite audible, and I heard with great distinctness a Maryland lass call some one to breakfast. They were astir up at Mount Vernon, too, though the fog hid them from view. I heard the mocking or Carolina wren alongshore calling quite plainly the words a Georgetown poet has put in his mouth,--"Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweet!" Presently I heard the whistle of approaching wings, and a solitary duck alighted back of me over my right shoulder,--just the most awkward position for me she could have assumed. I raised my head a little, and skimmed the water with my eye. The duck was swimming about just beyond the decoys, apparently apprehensive that she was intruding upon the society of her betters. She would approach a little, and then, as the stiff, aristocratic decoys made no sign of welcome or recognition, she would sidle off again. "Who are they, that they should hold themselves so loftily and never condescend to notice a forlorn duck?" I imagined her saying. Should I spring up and show my hand and demand her surrender? It was clearly my duty to do so. I wondered if the boys were looking from shore, for the fog had lifted a little. But I must act, or the duck would be off. I began to turn slowly in my sepulchre and to gather up my benumbed limbs; I then made a rush and got up, and had a fairly good shot as the duck flew across my bows, but I failed to stop her. A man in the woods in the line of my shot cried out angrily, "Stop shooting this way!"

I lay down again and faced the sun, that had now burned its way through the fog, till I was nearly blind, but no more ducks decoyed, and I called out to be relieved.

With our one duck, but with many pleasant remembrances, we returned to Washington that afternoon.

INDEX

ABUTILON, or velvet-leaf.

Ailanthus.

Alder, white.

Amaranth, 215.

Arbutus, trailing, or mayflower.

Arethusa.

Arkville.

Arnold, George.

Ash.

Asters.

Azalea, pink, or pinxter-flower.

Azalea, smooth.

Azalea, white.

Azalea, yellow.

Ball, an inexpensive.

Bark-a-boom.

Baxter's Brook.

Bay, sweet.

Bear, black, attacked with a club.

Bear-weed.

Beattie, James, quotation from.

Beaver, 173.

Bee. See Bumblebee, Honey-bee, and Sweat-bee.

Bee, solitary.

Beech.

Berries.

Bidens, or two-teeth, or pitchforks.

Big Beaver Kill.

Big Mountain.

Bindweed, black.

Birch, yellow.

Birds, singing at night; morning awakening of; individuality in the songs of; in poetry; process of hatching; leaving the nest; arrival in spring; love-making among; war among; their departure in the fall; a good season for; songs of, in America and in England.

Birds of prey, their flight when laden.

Blackbird, cow, or cowbird (MOLOTHRUS ATER).

Blackbird, crow, or purple grackle (QUISCALUS QUISCULA).

Blackbird, European, in poetry; his resemblance to the American robin; notes of.

Blackbird, red-winged. See Starling, red-shouldered.

Blackbird, rusty. See Grackle, rusty.

Bladderwort, horned.

Bluebird (SIALIA SIALIS), in poetry; notes of; nest of.

Blue-weed, or viper's bugloss; travels of; description of.

Boat, a picturesque.

Bobolink (DOLICHONYX ORYZIVORUS; as a wooer; notes of.

Bob-white. See Quail.

Bouncing Bet, or saponaria.

Boys.

Bryant, William Cullen; as a poet of nature; quotations from.

Buckwheat, wild.

Bugloss.

Bugloss, viper's. See Blue-weed.

Bullfrog.

Bumblebee; nest of.

Bunting, English.

Bunting, indigo. See Indigo-bird.

Bunting, snow, or snowflake (PASSERINA NIVALIS).

Burdock.

Burns, Robert, quotation from.

Butt End.

Buttercup.

Caledonia springs.

Calopogon.

Camping; in the rain.

Campion, bladder.

Cardinal (CARDINALIS CARDINALIS); notes of.

Cardinal flower. See Lobelia, scarlet.

Carrot, wild.

Catbird (GALEOSCOPTES CAROLINENSIS), in poetry; notes of.

Catnip.

Catskill Mountains.

Cattle, crossing a river; as eaters of weeds.

Cedar-bird, or cedar waxwing (AMPELIS CEDRORUM.

Chamomile.

Chewink, or towhee (PIPILO ERYTHROPHTHALMUS).

Chickadee (PARUS ATRICAPILLUS); nest of.

Chickweed; at the antipodes.

Chicory, or succory; in poetry.

Chipmunk.

Chippie. See Sparrow.

Chough.

Cicada, or harvest-fly.

Claytonia, or spring beauty.

Clematis, wild.

Clouds, boat-shaped.

Clover.

Clover, white.

Cochecton Falls.

Cockle.

Colchester.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, quotation from.

Coltsfoot.

Coltsfoot, sweet.

Columbine.

Companions, outdoor.

Cone-flower.

Coon. See Raccoon.

Cormorant.

Corn, Indian.

Cowbird. See Blackbird, cow.

Cows. See Cattle.

Cowslip. See Marigold, marsh.

Cowslip, English.

Creeper, brown (CERTHIA FAMILIARIS AMERICANA), nest of.

Crickets. See Tree-crickets.

Crow American (CORVUS BRACHYRHYNCHOS), gait of; notes of.

Cuckoo (COCCYZUS sp.), heard at night; habits of; in poetry; notes of.

Cuckoo, European.

Cuckoo-buds.

Cuckoo-flower.

Cuckoo-pint.

Cypripedium. See Lady's-slipper.

Daffodil.

Daisy, English.

Daisy, ox-eye.

Dandelion.

Darnel.

Day, a white.

Dead-nettle.

Delaware River, Pepacton branch of. See Pepacton River.

Dentaria.

Deposit.

Dicentra, or squirrel corn.

Dock, curled-leaf.

Dock, yellow.

Doctor, the (a snake).

Dog, Cuff and the woodchucks. See Greyhound and Hound.

Dog, farm, hound and.

Dogbane.

Dove, mourning (ZENAIDURA MACROURA).

Doves.

Downsville.

Dry Brook.

Ducks, feeding.

Duck-shooting on the Potomac.

Eagle, chased by a kingbird; flight of an.

East Branch.

Elecampane.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, quotations from; his knowledge of nature.

England, bird-songs in; pedestrianism in; the footpaths of; the highways of.

Esopus.

Eupatorium, purple.

Falcon, haggard.

Finch, purple (CARPODACUS PURPUREUS; notes of.

Fisherman, an ancient.

Fishes, spring movements of.

Fleabane, or whiteweed.

Flicker. See High-hole.

Flowers, wild, in poetry; fragrant.

Footpaths, lack of, in America; English; a schoolboy's footpath.

Forenoon, as distinguished from morning.

Fort Washington.

Fox, red, and hound,; hunting a; favorite sleeping places of; hard fare in winter; an encounter between rivals.

Fringed-orchis, purple.

Frog. See Bullfrog.

Frog, clucking. See Wood-frog.

Frog, peeping. See Hyla, Pickering's.

Garlic.

Gentian, closed.

Gentian, fringed, 63; Bryant's poem on.

Gill.

Girls.

Goethe.

Goldenrod.

Goldfinch, American (ASTRAGALINUS TRISTIS; pairing habits of; notes of.

Goose-foot.

Grackle, purple. See Blackbird, crow.

Grackle, rusty, or rusty blackbird (EUPHAGUS CAROLINUS), notes of.

Grass, the natural covering of the fields.

Grass, harvest.

Grass, quack.

Grass, quitch.

Green Cove Spring.

Greyhound.

Ground-nut.

Grouse, ruffed, or partridge (BONASA UMBELLUS), in poetry; drumming of.

"Gums,".

Gum-tree.

Haggard.

Hancock.

Hare, northern.

Hares.

Harrisonburg, Va.

Harvard.

Harvest-fly. See Cicada.

Hawk, in poetry, 116. See Hen-hawk.

Hawkfish. See Osprey, American.

Hawk's Point.

Hedgehog.

Hedge-sparrow.

Hemlock, poison.

Henbane.

Hen-hawk.

Hepatica, or liver-leaf; the first spring flower; an intermittently fragrant flower.

Hercules.

Heron.

Heron, great blue (ARDEA HERODIAS; notes of, 24, 28.

High-hole, or golden-winged woodpecker, or flicker (COLAPTES AURATUS LUTEUS; notes of; nest of.

Highlands of the Hudson, the.

Holywell.

Honey, flowers which yield.

Honey-bee, a product of civilization; wandering habits of; hunting wild bees; method of handling; as robbers; enemies of; Virgil on.

Honeysuckle.

Hooker, Sir Joseph.

Hop-clover.

Hornet, black.

Hornet, sand.

Hound, fox and.

Hound's-tongue.

Housatonic River.

Houstonia, or innocence.

Humble-bee. See Bumblebee.

Humming-bird, ruby-throated (TROCHILUS COLUBRIS), in poetry; nest of.

Hunt, Helen, quotation from.

Hyacinth, wild.

Hyla, Pickering's, or peeping frog; arboreal life of.

Hylas, the story of.

Indigo-bird or indigo bunting (CYANOSPIZA CYANEA; notes of.

Innocence. See Houstonia.

Insects, nocturnal.

Iron-weed.

Ivy.

Ivy, poison.

Jack, catching.

Jay, blue (CYANOCITTA CRISTATA; notes of.

Jewel-weed.

Junco, slate-colored. See Snowbird.

Katydids.

Kingbird (TYRANNUS TYRANNUS), chasing an eagle; as a bee-eater; notes of.

Kingfisher, belted (CERYLE ALCYON.

Knapp, Hon. Charles.

Knot-grass.

Lady's-slipper, large yellow.

Lady's-slipper, purple.

Lady's-slipper, small yellow.

Lady's tresses.

Lake Oquaga.

Lamprey.

Lapwing.

Lark. See Skylark.

Lark, shore or horned (OTOCORIS ALPESTRIS and O. A. PRATICOLA) and note.

Larkspur.

Laurel, mountain.

Leeks.

Lettuce, wild, 230, inden.

Linnæa.

Live-forever.

Liver-leaf. See Hepatica.

Lobelia, great blue.

Lobelia, scarlet, or cardinal flower.

Locust-tree.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, his inaccuracy in dealing with nature; quotations from.

Loosestrife.

Loosestrife, hairy.

Loosestrife, spiked, travels of; description of.

Lowell, James Russell, quotations from; his fidelity to nature.

Mallow.

Mandrake.

Maple, sugar; fragrance of its blossoms.

Marigold, marsh.

Martin, purple (PROGNE SUBIS).

Masque of the Poets, A, quotation from.

Mayflower. See Arbutus, trailing.

Mayweed.

Meadowlark (STURNELLA MAGNA); notes of.

Merganser, hooded (LOPHODYTES CUCULLATUS), with a brood of young.

Mice.

Milkweed.

Mink.

Mitchella vine, or squaw-berry, or partridge-berry.

Moccasin.

Mockingbird (MIMUS POLYGLOTTOS), in poetry.

Morning and forenoon, distinction between.

Motherwort.

Mount Vernon.

Mouse, field.

Mouse, white-footed, 169; tracks of.

Mullein; habits of.

Mullein, moth.

Mullein, white.

Musconetcong Creek.

Muskrat; a weatherwise animal; active in winter; nests of.

Mustard, wild.

Nature, the poets' intuitive knowledge of; Emerson's knowledge of; Bryant's knowledge of; Longfellow's inaccuracy in dealing with; Whittier's treatment of; Lowell's fidelity to Tennyson's accurate observations of; Walt Whitman a close student of; the poetic interpretation of; the scientific interpretation of.

Negro girl, a conversation with a.

Nettle.

Nettle, blind.

Nettle, hemp.

Nighthawk (CHORDEILES VIRGINIANUS.

Nightshade.

Note in the woods, a new.

Oak, white.

Onion, wild.

Opossum.

Orchids, American flora rich in.

Orchis, fringed. See Fringed-orchis.

Orchis, showy.

Oriole, Baltimore (ICTERUS GALBULA); as a fruit-destroyer; notes of; nest of.

Orpine, garden. See Live-forever.

Orpines, native.

Osprey, American, or fish hawk (PANDION HALIAËTUS CAROLINENSIS), feeding on the wing.

Otter.

Oven-bird (SEIURUS AUROCAPILLUS); song of.

Owl, screech (MEGASCOPS ASIO), and shrike.

Oxlip.

Pain, in relation to the nervous system.

Parsnip, wild.

Partridge. See Grouse, ruffed.

Partridge-berry. See Mitchella vine.

Partridge Island.

Pepacton River; a voyage down.

Pewee, wood (CONTOPUS VIRENS), Trowbridge's poem on.

Phœbe-bird (SAYORNIS PHŒBE); notes of; nest of.

Pigeon, passenger (ECTOPISTES MIGRATORIUS).

Pigeons.

Pigweed.

Pine, loblolly, 247.

Pinxter-flower. See Azalea, pink.

Pipit, American. See Titlark.

Pitchforks. See Biclens.

Plantain.

Plantain, narrow-leaved.

Pliny, his account of an intermittent spring.

Poets, their intuitive knowledge of nature; inaccuracies and felicities in matters of natural history; their interpretation of nature.

Pogonia, adder's-tongue.

Pokeweed.

Polygala, fringed.

Pond-lily, or sweet-scented water lily.

Pond-lily, yellow.

Poppy, scarlet field.

Porcupine, Canadian.

Potomac River, duck-shooting on.

Primrose, in poetry.

Primrose, evening.

Prince's pine.

Purslane.

Pyrola. See Wintergreen, false.

Quail, or bob-white (COLINUS VIRGINIANUS.

Rabbit, gray.

Rabbits.

Raccoon, or coon.

Radish, wild.

Rafting on the Delaware.

Ragweed; a troublesome weed.

Rain, arboreal; summer.

Raspberry.

Rat, wood.

Redbird. See Cardinal.

Redpoll (ACANTHIS LINARIA), notes; of.

Red-root.

Rhododendron.

River, a voyage down a; loneliness of the.

Roads, in England and America.

Robin, American (MERULA MIGRATORIA); in poetry; in love and war; notes of; nest of.

Rondout Creek.

Roots, like molten metal.

St. John's-wort.

Salamander, banded.

Salamander, red.

Salamander, violet-colored or spotted.

San Antonio, Texas.

Saponaria. See Bouncing Bet.

Sapsucker, yellow-bellied. See-Woodpecker, yellow-bellied.

Sawmill, a floating.

Scott, Sir Walter.

SEDUM TELEPHIOIDES.

SEDUM TERNATUM.

Shagbark.

Shairp, John Campbell, his POETIC INTERPRETATION OF NATURE.

Shakespeare, quotations from; his accuracy in observation.

Shavertown.

Shawangunk Mountains.

Shepherd's purse.

Shrew.

Shrike.

Skunk.

Skunk-cabbage.

Skylark; on the Hudson; song of.

Snail.

Snake.

Snake, black.

Snow, a landscape of; in the woods.

Snowbird, slate-colored, or slate-colored junco (JUNCO HYEMALIS), in poetry; notes of.

Snowflake. See Bunting, snow.

Sodom.

Sorrel, sheep.

Sparrow, bush or Held (SPIZELLA PUSILLA.

Sparrow, English (PASSER DOMESTICUS), manner of courtship.

Sparrow, social or chipping, or "chippie" (SPIZELLA SOCIALIS).

Sparrow, song (MELOSPIZA CINEREA MELODIA); notes of.

Sparrow, vesper (POŒCETES GRAMINEUS), rejecting the attentions of a skylark.

Specularia, clasping.

Spider, killing a bee; a musical.

Spring, sudden coming of, 160-168.

Spring beauty. See Claytonia.

Springs, paths leading to; their universal attractiveness; centres of greenness; symbolism of; locations of; fondness of trout for; physiology of; their mineral elements; large; as refrigerators; countries poor in; on mountains; places of worship; various kinds of; marvelous; intermittent; in the Idyls of Theocritus.

Squaw-berry. See Mitchella vine.

Squirrel, flying.

Squirrel, gray.

Squirrel, Mexican black.

Squirrel, red.

Squirrel corn. See Dicentra.

Squirrels, as parachutes.

Star, shooting.

Starling, red-shouldered, or red winged blackbird, notes of.

Stedman, Edmund Clarence, his SEEKING THE MAYFLOWER.

Stevenson, Robert Louis, his TRAVELS WITH A DONKEY.

Stick-seed.

Stones, life under.

Stramonium.

Strawberries, wild.

Succory. See Chicory.

Sumac.

Swallow, bank (RIPARIA RIPARIA).

Swallow, barn (HIRUNDO ERYTHROGASTRA); nest of.

Swallow, chimney, or chimney swift (CHÆTURA PELAGICA), nest of.

Swallow, cliff (PETROCHELIDON LUNIFRONS), in poetry; nest of.

Swallow, European.

Swallows, in poetry.

Sweat-bee.

Tails, uses of.

Tansy.

Tare. See Vetch.

Teasle.

Tennyson, Alfred, quotations from; a good observer.

Theocritus, quotation from.

Thistle, Canada.

Thistle, common.

Thistle, pasture.

Thistle, swamp.

Thomson, James, quotation from.

Thrasher, brown (TOXOSTOMA RUFUM), song of.

Thrush, hermit (HYLOCICHLA GUTTATA PALLASII), in poetry; notes of.

Thrush, wood (HYLOCICHLA MUSTELINA), notes of.

Titlark, or American pipit (ANTHUS PENSILVANICUS).

Toad. See Tree-toad.

Toad-flax.

Tobacco.

Tortoise.

Towhee. See Chewink.

Tree-crickets.

Tree-toad.

Trout, brook, their fondness for springs; caught with tickling.

Trout-fishing.

Trowbridge, John T., his natural history; quotations from.

Turkey, wild (MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO SILVESTRIS).

Turtle.

Turtle-head.

Twin-flower. See Linnæa.

Two-teeth. See Bidens.

Velvet-leaf. See Abutilon.

Venus's looking-glass.

Vervain.

Vetch, or tare.

Violet, in poetry.

Violet, Canada; its fragrance.

Violet, common blue.

Violet, English.

Violet, white.

Violet, yellow.

Vireo, in poetry.

Virgil, on honey-bees; quotations from.

Walking, in England; a simple and natural pastime.

Warbler, yellow-rumped, or myrtle (DENDROICA CORONATA).

Wasp, sand. See Hornet, sand.

Water-lily. See Pond-lily.

Waxwing, cedar. See Cedar-bird.

Weasel.

Weebutook River.

Weeds; their devotion to man; the gardener and the farmer the best friends of; Nature's makeshift; great travelers; their abundance in America; native and foreign; the growth of; escaped from cultivation; beautiful; uses of various; less persistent and universal than grass; virtues of.

Well of St. Winifred.

Wheat, winter.

Whip-poor-will (ANTROSTOMUS VOCIFERUS), song of.

Whiteweed. See Fleabane.

Whitman, Walt, a close student of American nature; quotations from.

Whittier, John Greenleaf, as a poet of nature; quotations from.

Winchester, Va.

Wintergreen, false, or pyrola.

Wintergreen, spotted.

Witch-hazel, 101.

Woodchuck.

Wood-frog.

Woodpecker, in poetry.

Woodpecker, downy (DRYOBATES PUBESCENS MEDIANUS).

Woodpecker, golden-winged. See High-hole.

Woodpecker, yellow-bellied, or yellow-bellied sapsucker (SPHYRAPICIUS VARIUS), drumming of.

Wood-pigeons.

Wood-sorrel, common.

Wood-sorrel, yellow.

Wordsworth, William, quotations from.

Wren, Carolina (THRYOTHORUS LUDOVICIANUS), notes of.

Wren, house (TROGLODYTES AËDON), notes of; nest of.

Yarrow.