The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-26

Snowbirds were the most abundant
 think, but white throats and myrtl
 warblers were neither of them far be ! hind. Hermit thrushes, winter wrens
 chipping sparrows song sparrows ant
 ruby crowns were continually in evi 1 dence, with bluejays, flicker and
 purple finch, who was practising som
 niggardly, disconnected, vireo-lik
 phrases, as the manner of purple finch
 es is in the autumnal season.
 Then, when the older forest was reached, there came an interval o1
 silence, broken at last by the distant, ol
 distant-seeming voice of a red breast
 ed nuthatch and the cheerful notes o1
 chickadees. Soon two hermits showed
 themselves, facing me on a low perch
 and lifting their tails solemnly in re-
 sponse to my chirping; and near them
 were a wren or two, with flock of
 white threats and snowbirds. I had
 never seen the dear old road birdier,
 even in May, though of course I had
 often seen the number of species very
 much larger.
 | At the height of land came upon the
 first snow, a mere fringe left on the shady side of the way. l made snow
 ball, for the sake of doing it, and de- cided all at once not to go down into the Notch, but up to the top of Bald Mountain. There, if the sky cleared, as I felt hopeful it would, I should have a sight worth remembering.
 The mountain is only little one, but it is steep enough--the upper half of it, at all events-to give the eager pedes- trian a puff for his money. For myself, had time to spare, and had been over the path too often to be subject to the state of mind q know it welD which have heard characterized as climbers impatience. Unless something quite un- foreseen should happen, the summit would wait for me. Half way up, also, flock of bluejays, five or six at least, who were holding long and mysterious confabulation close by the path, af- forded me a comfortable breathing spell. At first suspected the presence of an owl, against whom the Jays were plotting mischief; but their voices were much of the time too low to initiate, too lacking in balllgerency. Some of the birds might even have been communing with themselves, Their whole behavior had an air of preternatural cunning, and their remarks, whatever their pur- port, were in the highest degree varied. One fellow was am sterly performer upon the bones Clay scholars will un- derstand what l mean, and I should despair of explaining myself in a few words to anyone else), while another gave me genuine surprise by whist ling again and again in the manner of red-tailed hawk All jays; so far as I know, scream like the red-shouldered hawk (whether in the way of imitation or not is another question:, but this fellow was the first from whom I had ever heard this most wild and singular whistle. I think it likely enough that no other bluejay in the world possesses | such an accomplishment.
 The jays dispersed, the solitary climber pushed on, and in few min utes more was at the top. The rocky cone of Lafayette was still clouded, but under the cloud fringe there was plenty of snow in sight, A the upper slopes of Kinsman. Cannon and Lafayette were covered with it. except that the deciduous trees (broad patches of vel low) were bare. Apparently the snow! had struck only upon the evergreens, and the color effect at this distance was very striking. the white over the green producing beautiful gray. I should never have imagined 1t. The hotel and its cottages, nestled between the noun tains, all had white roofs, but the land scape as q whole was anything but wintry Everywhere below the great forest still showed in abundance of