Page:Early Spring in Massachusetts (1881).djvu/137

Rh the chankings. I took off some pieces of bark more than three feet long and one foot wide. Between this and the wood, in the dust left by borers, the gnats were concealed, ready to swarm. This is their hibernaculum.

The rich red-brown leaves of the gnaphalium, downy white beneath, begin to attract me where the snow is off.

March 12, 1854. Up railroad to woods. We have white frosts these mornings. This is the blackbird morning. Their sprayey notes and conqueree ring with the song-sparrow's jingle all along the river. Thus gradually they acquire confidence to sing. It is a beautiful spring morning. I hear my first robin peep distinctly at a distance on some higher trees, oaks or other, on a high key, no singing yet. I hear from an apple tree a faint cricket-like chirp, and a sparrow darts away, flying far, dashing from side to side. I think it must be the white-in-tail or grass finch. I hear a jay loudly screaming, phe-phay, phe-phay, a loud, shrill chickadee's phe-bee. I see and hear the lark sitting with head erect, neck outstretched, in the middle of a pasture, and- 1 hear another far off, singing. They sing when they first come. All these birds do their warbling especially in the still sunny hour after sunrise. Now is the time to be abroad to hear them, as you detect the slightest ripple in