Spring notes from Tennessee

ong the road, which emerges from the woods at one end of the settlement, and, after a mile or so in the sun, drops into them again at the other end. The glory of the place, and th

live in that house?" "That?" said he, in a tone I shall never forget. "That's a barn. That over there is the dwelling." My ignorance was fittingly rebuked, and I had no spirit to inquire about the piazza. Probably it was nothing but a lean-to. Even in my humiliation, however, it pleased me to hear what I should have called that good literary word "dwelling" on such lips. A Yankee boy might have said "dwelling-house," but

rs. "I hope you are beating the young fellow," I could not help saying once to the old gentleman. He smiled dubiously, and made some halting reply suggestive of resignation rather than triumph; and it came to me with a kind of p

My notes make particular record of hooded and Kentucky warblers, these being two of my newer acquaintances, as well as two of the commoner Ridge songsters; but I halted for some time, and with even a livelier interest, to listen to an old friend (no acquaintance, if you please),-a black-throated green warbler. It was one of the queerest of songs: a bar of five or six notes, uniform in pitch, and then at once, in perfect form and voice,-the voice being a main part of the music in the case of this warbler,-the familiar trees, trees, murmuring trees. Where could the fellow have picked up such a ditty? No doubt there was some story connected with it. Nothing is born of itsel

s in a cabin yard. I interrupted the sport long enough to inquire which road I had better take. I was going nowhere in particular, I explained, and wanted simply a pleasant stroll. "Then I would go to the Brow, if I were you," said the man. "Keep a straight road. It isn't far." I thanked him, and with a cheery "Come on!" to his playmates he ran back, literally, to the ring. Yes, life is easy in the Tennessee mountains. It is not to be assumed, nevertheless, tha

und the first turn, he would have seen him standing motionless beside a swamp, holding his head on one side as if listening,-though there was nothing to be heard,-or evoking

rst blue-winged yellow warbler at the Chickamauga battlefield. If Walden was to treat me equally well, as in all fairness it ought, now was the time. Looking, listening, and squeaking were alike unrewarded, however, till I approached the same spot on my return. Then some bird sang a new song.

nd it; and more to the north, and far in the distance, loomed the Great Smoky Mountains, in all respects true to their name. The valley at my feet was beautiful beyond words: green forests interspersed with green clearings, lonely cabins, and bare fields of red earth. At the north, Walden's Ridge made a turn eastward, narrowing the valley, but without ending it. Chimney swifts were cackling merrily, and the air was full o

d cottage, and, when the rain is over, go back to the swamp, see my bird, and thence return home." So it turned out-in part. The clouds hurried me, but I reached the Brow just in season, climbed the cottage fence, the gate being padlocked, and, thoroughly heated as I was, paced briskly to and fro on the piazza in a chilling breeze for an hour o

hat was not so easy. The swamp was silent, and I was at once so cold and

a sudden descent in the pitch, and the same syllables over again. At that instant, a Carolina wren, as if stirred to rivalry, sprang into a bush and began whistling cherry, cherry, cherry at his loudest and prettie

, isn't it?" said I. Possibly he was unused to such aphoristic modes of speech. He took time to consider. Then he smiled, and said, "Yes, sir." The answer was al

ng not thrushes, but warblers), is rather striking,-clear, pretty loud, of about ten notes, the first pair of which are longest and best. I speak of what I heard, and give, of course, my own impression. Audubon pronounces the notes "as powerful and mellow, and at times as varied," as those of the nightingale, and Wilson waxes almost equally enthusiastic in his praise of the "exquisitely

The spring, spurting out of the rock in a slender jet, is beside the same stream-Little Falling Water-that makes through the swamp; and along its banks, it appeared, the water-thrushes

g, and if I would call at his house, a short distance down the road,-the house with the big barn,-he would make me a rough map, such as would answer my purpose. At the same time he mentioned two or three shorter excursions which I ought not to miss; and when I had thanked him for his kindness, he gathered up the reins and drove on. Intending no disrespect to the inhabitants of the Ridge, I may perhaps be allowed to say that I was considerably impressed by a certain unexpected propriety, and even elegance, of diction, on the part of my new acquaintance. I remember in particular his description of a pleasant cold spring as being situated not far f

of the mountain,-a place formerly frequented by picnic parties, but now, to all appearance, fallen into neglect. We stretched our legs, drank of the water, admired the flowers and ferns, talking all the while (it was here that my companion told

rom which General Sherman signaled encouragement to the Union army beleaguered in Chattanooga, in danger of starvation or sur

short distance above the Suck, and almost at our feet, lay Williams Island. A farmer's Eden it looked, with its broad, newly planted fields, and its house surrounded by out-buildings and orchard-trees. The view included Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, and much else; but its special charm was its foreground, the part peculiar to itself,-the valley, the river, and Raccoon Mountain. Along the river-banks were small clearings, each with its one cabin, and generally a figure or two ploughing or

e, I added one to my list of Tennessee birds,-a red-tailed hawk, one of the very few hawks seen in all my t

ier spot. The mountain brook, laughing over the stones, is overhung with laurel and rhododendron, which in turn are overhung by precipitous rocks broken into all wild and romantic shapes, with here and there a cavern-"rock-house"-to shelter a score of travelers. The place was rich in ferns and other plants, which, unhappily, I had no time to examine, and

r I took it for granted that the creature was a rattlesnake, and a glance at it, lying motionless among the stones beside the road, did not undeceive me. I turned hurriedly, looking for a stick, but somehow could not find one, and in a moment more was recalled by shouts of "Come and help me! It will get away from us!" It was a question of life and death, I thought, and I ran forward and began throwing stones. "Look out! Look out! You'll bury it!" cried my companio

, is it?" I ventured to as

he pried open its jaw

akes," I ventured again, a little i

r. "The very sight of a snake

m in the woods.") My companion had never seen one, he answered, but his wife had once killed one in their dooryard. Then, by way of cooling off, after the fervor of the conflict, he told me about a gentlema

e saw a rattlesnake, and p

here is it? What

't see it, bu

. M., and he took a pencil from his

said the boy,

mming for love,-whereupon the man had fired his pistol

icket. Making my companion a signal not to disturb us by driving into the stream, I gave myself up to discovering the singer; edging this way and that, while the fellow moved about also, always unseen, and sang again and again, now a louder song, now, with charming effect, a quieter and briefer one, till I was alm

the woods, stood a newly built cabin, looking badly out of place with its glaring unweathered boards; and beside the cabin stood a man and woman in a condition of extreme disgust. The man had come up the mountain to work in some coal-mine, i

some time suspended over the abyss, beating against the breeze, and so holding itself steady,-a graceful piece of work, the better appreciated for being seen from above. Here, also, for the first time in my life, I was ad

the road entered the forest again. Then, as the way grew more and more difficult, we left the horse behind us, and by and by came to a foot-path. This brought us at last to Falling Water Fall, where Little Falling Water-after threading the swamp and passing Mabbitt's Spring, as before described-tumbles over a precipice which my companion, with his surveyor's eye, estimated to be one hundred and fifty feet in height. The slender stream, broken into jewels as it falls, strikes the bottom at some distance from the foot of the cliffs, which here form the arc of a circle, and are not perpendicular, but

more likely, for two or three miles-were straight before us, broken everywhere into angles, light gray and reddish-brown intermixe

te, who, besides being preacher, lawyer, surveyor, and farmer, was also a mystic and a saint,-though he would have refused the word,-fell into a strain of reminiscence, appropriate to the hour, about the inner life of the soul, its hopes, its struggles, and its joys. I listened i

ow I had seen but a corner of it, as I have seen but a corner of the larger world on which, for these few years back, I have had what I call my existence. And even of what I saw, much has gone undescribed: stately tulip-trees deep in the forest, with humming-birds darting from flower to flower among them; the flame-colored azalea; the ground flowers of the woods, including so

ome one hurrying up the stairs and shouting, "Where's the gun? Where's the gun? Shorty's been shot!" "Shorty" was the colored waiter, and the speaker was a general factotum, an English boy. The colored people-Shorty, his wife, and the cook-had been out on the edge of the woods behind the house, when three men had fired at them, or pretended to do so. It was explained the next morning that this was only an attempt (on the part of some irresponsible young men

house. In any event, the presence of "Whitecaps," real or imaginary, must affect his summer patronage. I fully expected to see the colored trio pack up and go ba

"He can turn a somerset good," he had said to me, as I passed. Now, for the sake of being neighborly, I asked, "How's the pig to-day?" He smiled, and made some reply, as if he appreciated the pleasantry; but a more serious-looking playmate took up his

said to myself. Crossing the creek on the log, and the branch on stepping-stones, I went to quench my thirst at the Marshall Spring, which once had a cabin beside it, and frequent visitors, but now was clogged with fallen leaves and seemingly abandoned. It was perhaps more beautiful so. Directly behind it rose a steep bank, and in front stood an oak and a maple, the latter leaning toward it an

bad weather when the time is past? All those black clouds have left no shadow on Walden

of seen beauty

, "It is after we get home that

NESSEE B

mocking-bird's manner, and, to my ear, almost or quite as well; but he possesses no gift as a mimic, and furthermore, without being exactly a bird of the forest or the wilderness, is instinctively and irreclaimably a recluse. It would be hard, even among human beings, to find a nature less touched with urbanity. In the mocking-bird the elements are more happily mingled. Not gregarious, intolerant of rivalry, and, as far as creatures of his own kind are concerned, a stickler for elbow-room,-sharing with his brown relative in that respect,-he is at the same time a born citizen and neighbor; as fond of gardens and dooryard trees as the thrasher is of scrublands and barberry bushes. "Man delights me," he might say, "and woman also." He likes to be listened to, it is pretty certain; and possibly he is dimly aware of

ral, but, I am sorry to say, not unprecedented-of a bird-house occupied in partnership by purple martins and English sparrows. They had finished their quarrels, if they had ever had any,-which can hardly be open to doubt, both native and foreigner being constitutionally belligerent,-and frequently sat side by side upon the ri

are pretty certainly growing fewer and fewer, what with the prevalence of the box-monopolizing European sparrow, and the passing of the big, old-fashioned, widely ventilated barn; for there is no member of the family, not even the sand martin, whose distribution does not depend in great degree upon human agency. Even yet, however, if a Massachusetts man will make a circuit of a few miles, he will usually meet with tree swal

doors, in the neighborhood of mountains covered with old forest! Taken by itself, this unexpected showing might have been ascribed to some queer combination of accidents, or to a failure of observation. In fact, I was inclined so to explain it till I noticed that Mr. Brewster had chronicled a similar state of things in what is substantially the same piece of country. Writing of western North Carolina, he says:[3] "The general scarcity-one may almost say absence-of hawks in

ee near my window. In them nature has developed the bird idea to its extreme,-a pair of wings, with just body enough for ballast; like a racing-yacht, built for nothing but to carry sail and avoid resistance. Their flight is a good visual music, as Emerson might have said; but I love also their quick, eager notes, like the sounds of children at play. And while it has nothing to do with Tennessee, I am prompted to mention here a bird of this species that I once saw in northern New Hampshire on the 1st of October,-an extraordinarily late date, if my experience counts for anything. With a friend I had made an ascent

e weeks in Tennessee I saw eight flickers, seven hairy woodpeckers, two red-heads, and two or three red-cockaded woodpeckers, besides which I heard one downy and one "logcock." The last-named bird, which is big enough for even the careless to notice, seemed to be well known to the inhabitants of Walden's Ridge, where I heard it. By what they told me, it should be fairly common, but I saw nothing of its "peck-holes." The first of my two red-headed woodpeckers was near the base of Missionary Ridge, wasting his time in exploring pole after pole along the railway. Did he

urrence, unless my observation has been unfortunate, after the nest is built, or even while it is building. One female piqued my curiosity by returning again and again to the bole of an oak, hovering before it as before a flower, and more than once clinging to its rough upright surfa

I did not "wipe my eye," not being a poet, nor even a "rash gazer," but I admired anew the wonderful flashing jewel, now coal-black, now flaming red, with which, perhaps, the male ruby-throat blinds his long-suffering mate to all his shameful treatment of her in her season of watchfulness and motherly anxiety. Does she nev

field sparrows, and Bachman sparrows; the first interesting for their familiarity, the other two for their musical gifts. In a comparison between eastern Tennessee-as I saw it-and eastern Massachusetts, the Bachman sparrow must be set against the song sparrow, the vesper sparrow,

breasted grosbeak and the purple finch, two of our best esteemed Massachusetts birds, both for music and for beauty; to offset which we have the cardinal gr

e Maryland yellow-throats, Cape May warblers, Canada warblers, Kentucky warblers, prairie warblers, palm warblers, Acadian flycatchers, but not the two birds (the only two, as well as I remember) that bear Tennessee names.[4] The absence of the Nashville was a matter of wonderment to me. Dr. Rives, I have since noticed, records it as only a rare migrant in Virginia. Yet by some route it reaches eastern New England in decidedly handsome numbers. Its congener, the blue golden-wing, surprised me in an opposite directi

quaintance with ornithology, and he replied that if the oven-bird summered in that country he did not know it. The case seemed to be going against me, but I bethought myself of Mr. Brewster's "Ornithological Reconnaissance in Western North Carolina," and there I read,[5] "The open oak woodlands, so prevalent in this region, are in every way adapted to the requirements of the oven-bird, and throughout them it is one of the commonest and most characteristic summer birds." "O

ne side of which is occupied by dwellings, while the other drops to the river so precipitously as to be almost inaccessible, and is even yet, I was told, an abode of foxes. On the day after my arrival I strolled to the top of the hill toward evening, and in the pines found a few black-pol

d my heart wa

in Tennessee, the rarity for which, spring after spring, I had been so many years on the watch. I had co

dy; tickling his present conceit of himself by smiling at the man he used to be. How very wise he has grown, to be sure! All such refinements, nevertheless, if he did but know it, are only a poorer kind of child's play; less spontaneous, infinitely less satisfying, and equally irrational. Ecstasy is not to be assayed by any test that the reason is competent to apply; nor do

pocket; but it made me happy,-happy enough to sing and shout, though I am ashamed to say I did neither. And even a sober son of the Puritans may be glad to find himself, in some unexpected hour, almost as ineffably delighted as he used to be with a new plaything in the time when he had not yet tasted of the tree of knowledge, and knew not that the relish for playthings could ever be outg

her travels with packs of cards. Every day's catch is part of the game; and once in a while, as happened to me on Cameron Hill, he gets a "great hand," and in imagination, at least, sweeps the board. Commonplace people smile at him, no doubt; but that is only amusing, and he smiles in turn. He can tell many good stories under that head. He delights to be called a "crank." It is all because of people's ignorance. They have no idea that he is Mr. So-and-So

ingle observer is likely ever to come to the end of them. They do not warble, it must be owned, and few of them have much distinction as singers, the best that I know being the black-throated green and the Kentucky; but they are elegant and varied in their plumage, with no lack of bright tints, while their extreme activity and their

a day, but not to be tempted by all the allurements of this fine country; still pushing on, northward, and still northward, as if for them there were no place in the world but the woods where they were born. Of the southern species just named, the Kentucky was the most abundant, with the hooded not far behind. The prairie warbler seemed about as common here as in its favored Massachusetts haun

ed the white-eyed vireo, and even the indigo-bird, I think. Black-polls were seen daily up to May 13, after which they were missing altogether. The last Cape May and the last yellow-rump were noted on the 8th, the last redstart and the last palm warbler on the 11th, the last chestnut-side, magnolia, and Canadian warbler on the 12th. On the 12th, also, I saw my only Wilson's blackcap. In my last outing, on the 18th, on Walden's Ridge, I came upon two Blackburnians in widely s

ssachusetts usually occurs. Bobolinks, which reach Massachusetts by the 10th of May, or earlier, were still very abundant-both sexes-May 25! Such dates are not what we should have expected, I suppose, especially in the case of a bird like the bobolink, which has no very high northern range; but they seem not to be exceptional, and are surprising only because we have not yet mastered the general subject. Nothing exists by itself, and therefore nothing can be understood by itself. One thing the most ignorant of us may see,-that the l

ers, and the savanna patches full of meadow larks. Myrtle warblers are everywhere. Ph?bes salute you as you walk the city streets, and flocks of chippers and vesper sparrows enliven the fields along the country roads. In a piece of hammock just outside the town you find yourself all at once surrounded by a winter colony of summer birds. Here are solitary vireos, Maryland y

. Such multitudes of birds as were singing on Missionary Ridge on that first bright forenoon! The number of species was not great, when it came to counting them,-morning and afternoon together yielded but forty-two; but the whole country seemed alive with wings. And of the forty-two species, thirty-two were such as summer in Massachusetts or pass through it to their homes beyond. Here were already (April 27) the olive-backed th

birds, which at first, even with the aid of my glass, I could not make out, the bridge being so high above the river and its banks. While I was watching them, however, they began to sing. They were b

course the loyal Tennessean is in no want of a ready answer. Robins, song sparrows, vesper sparrows, and swallows are not absent, except as breeding birds. He has them all in their season,[9] and probably hears them sing. On the whole, then, he may fairly retort, he has considerably the advantage of us Yankees: he sees our birds on their passage, and drinks his fil

s ambition, as things looked; yet still enterprising, still fairly well satisfied with itself, with no lack of energy and bustle. As it happened, there was a stir in local politics at the time of my visit (possibly there always is), and at the street corners all patriotic citizens were exhorted to do their duty. "Vote for Tom -- for sheriff," said one p

been here thirty years before. Precious is the power of a first impression. Because I was newly in the country I was constantly under the feeling of its past. Hither and thither I went in the regi

T OF

od of Chattanooga from

car window. No other water birds were observed except three or

Partridge. Colinus

t." Bonasa umbettus.-Heard

ng Dove. Zenaidura macro

Turkey Buzzard. Cat

ion Crow. Catharista a

eo borealis.-One bird s

o sparverius.-One bir

Coccyzus americanus.-Comm

halmus.-Seen twice on Lookout Mountain, May

ryle alcyon.-A single bir

attempt was made to determine their specific or sub-specific identity, b

eard (not seen) on Walden's Ridge,-a noticeable reversal of th

is.-Found only at Chickamauga, on Snodgrass H

us pileatus.-Said to be common on Walden's

ry Ridge and one at Chickamauga. The scarcity of this bird, and the absence o

mmon. Three birds were seen at Chickamauga, and it was occasion

ly common. I heard it only on Walden's Ridge, the

Chordeiles virg

ft. Ch?tura pel

bris.-Common in the forests of Walden's Ridge.

-Seen but three times-nine speci

iarchus crinitus.-Noticed

on on Lookout Mountain and Wald

e most numerous member of the family. Present in good

een-crested Flycatcher. Em

ta.-Scarce (for the blue jay),

Apparently much less common t

zivorus.-A small flock seen,

us spurius.-Common, but n

erus galbula.-A single bi

scula ?neus-are found in Tennessee. See Dr. Fox's List of Birds found in Roane County, Tennessee. "The Auk," vol. iii. p. 315. My own list of the Icterid? is re

asser domesticus.-Distressingly super

us tristis.-Abundan

ia leucophrys.-Seen but once (May 1)

collis.-Common. Still present on Walden's Ri

Doorstep Sparrow. Spiz

row. Spizella

a ?stivalis bachmanii.-Commo

Rather common. Much less numerous than I shoul

lis cardinalis.-Seen daily, bu

eak. Habia ludoviciana.

y abundant. For the first time I saw t

hromelas.-Common on the mountains

r. Piranga rubra.

rtin. Progne

w. Stelgidopteryx serri

livaceus.-Common. One of th

o flavifrons.-Common. Seen or h

ireo noveboracensis.-Ab

Creeper. Mniotilta

ila pinus.-One bird seen at Chickama

hila chrysoptera.-Common, especially

backed Warbler. Compsothlypis a

ird seen on Cameron Hill, and a small company

er. Dendroica ?stiva.-Common, bu

bler. Dendroica c?rulescens

Warbler. Dendroica coronata.-Noted

Dendroica maculosa.-No

ca c?rulea.-One bird, a male

ndroica pensylvanica.-Listed o

roica castanea.-Seven or eight

er. Dendroica striat

. Dendroica blackburni?.

ica. (Albilora?)-Found only at Chickamauga (

green Warbler. Dend

vigorsii.-Not numerous, but

is bird was not certainly determined, but I judged the specimens-seen on four dat

er. Dendroica dis

mmon on Lookout Mountain and Walden's R

Seiurus motacilla.-A few b

lypis formosa.-Very common,

w-throat. Geothlyp

d Chat. Icteria vi

ta.-Common, especially along the w

pusilla.-A single bird on Wald

nia canadensis.-Seen on thr

ga ruticilla.-Common.

polyglottos.-Rare. Not

ensis.-Very common, both in the c

er. Harporhynchu

king Wren. Thryothorus

rus bewickii.-Not common. S

is.-Common at Chickamauga and on Walden's Rid

mouse. Parus b

kadee. Parus caro

catcher. Polioptil

A bird with its beak full of nest materials was

sh. Veery. Turdus

us alici?, or T. alici? bickn

s ustulatus swainsonii.-In good numbers and free

ria.-Five birds in the na

is.-Common. Young birds o

DE

tus,

flame-col

k,

te,

a, blue

rd:- cr

inged

, 13, 78, 9

nk, 20

turkey,

25, 43, 47, 78,

scarlet, 1

-bird

6, 9, 13, 17, 19, 27, 47,

k, 6,

e, black

arolina, 13,

lip,

bill,

-white, 6, 12, 33,

ne, 23,

, 42

lack-bille

, 19, 24, 71,

floweri

mourni

cinnamo

n-hai

9, 13, 25, 66, 78, 81,

le,

, 66, 7

cadian, 17, 24

9, 13, 67

-belli

e-tre

, wild

ue-gray, 6, 13,

, 17, 24, 25,

ell,

l, 6, 13, 23, 26,

asted, 1

ffed (phea

d-tailed,

w, 174

cium,

a, 23, 6

ruby-throated,

3, 17, 47, 55, 72, 7

lue, 1

ird,

golden-cr

ipper, ye

d, 43

en-year, 55, 70

ia, 13

purple

-throat, 6, 13,

ed, 92

etoe,

d, 6, 78, 8

, 132, 135, 147

breasted (Caroli

- Balti

3, 78, 99,

31, 33, 4

violet, 3

low

emon,

17, 33, 62, 71,

, 34, 61,

28, 4

Indi

6, 71

Senecio),

en,

6, 13, 25,

35-137, 147, 16

96, 2

emone,

frag

Bachman's

13, 26, 99, 1

, 47, 55, 62, 67, 70

glish) 93

, 194,

194, 2

crowne

d, 6, 26, 95,

laria

beauty,

op, whi

gh-winged, 22

bellied), 18

bush

chimn

20, 24, 33, 41, 1

3, 17, 20, 47,

h), 6, 7, 13, 17, 33,

gray-chee

it,

na wate

n's), 7, 13, 14, 19,

eery), 13,

17, 33, 47, 87, 9

ufted, 13,

ree, 17

elo

ild, 81,

maple-le

bird-foo

ed, 6, 13, 33,

tary

, 13, 17, 47, 11

ed, 9, 13, 33

ck (carrion c

y, 6,

reasted, 6, 28,

an, 30, 31

8, 32, 38, 42, 49, 61, 8

blue, 12, 31, 3

green, 28, 31

d, 20, 22,

-backed, 21

, 22, 23, 11

37, 39, 198,

lean

ded, 12, 25

cticu

ed, 13, 110

48, 135, 14

35, 47, 49, 109, 110, 116,

9, 30, 32,

ning

ed), 6, 12, 32, 39,

ille,

l), 32, 38, 1

25, 17

1, 25, 110, 1

ssee,

blackcap,

n), 12, 99, 1

oated, 72,

ush, Loui

orwill

een, str

er:- dow

winged,

, 30,

ated

ed, 67, 73

ed, 80,

Bewic

13, 17, 25, 26, 28, 4

TNO

ld be known as the doorstep sparrow

uthority. I followed the map, but misunderstood the man who drew it. It was a

k, vol. ii

ns were shot. Concerning the Tennessee warbler he sets down the opinion that "it is most probably a native of a more so

k, vol. ii

uk, vol.

., vol.

y Dr. Fox, namely, Wilson's thrush, black-poll warbler, bay-breasted warbler, Cape May warbler, black-throated blue warbl

Dr. Fo