blue in comparison with the yellow of young leaves, rushed forward
before the wind like a green flood of roaring water. Across the plain
and up the slopes it poured as the waters of Niagara pour down the slope
to the brink of the fall. Even the white foam of the rapids was
simulated in the silvery-green flashes that raced with the breeze. Only
summer grass thus flows. No other season can give it such vivid motion.
To me there came too a dozen summer messengers. Two or three varieties
of transparent winged dragon flies swirled in and out of the little bay
of sunshine. A fulvous and black butterfly lighted on the rock at my
feet and gently, rhythmically raised and lowered his wings. It was as
expressive of satisfaction as smacking the lips would be. Again and
again he slipped away and then sailed back, leaving me still in doubt as
to whether he was the lovely little _Melitæa harrisi_, or _Phyciodes
nycteis_, both of which are very solemn names for pretty little
butterflies which fly about as a signal that summer is already beginning
to glow about us.
By and by the joy of the spot seemed to soothe him and he settled down
for a longer stay, folding his wings and proving to me that he was
_nycteis_ without question, for there on his hind wing was distinctly
the mark of the silver crescent. Butterflies should have been popular
when knighthood was in flower, for each carries the heraldic blazon of
his house where all may see.
Soon I found my seat on the rock disputed by a pair of dusky-wings. I
had found the earlier dusky-wings of the woodland paths skittish and
unwilling to let me get to close quarters with them. This may have been
because I made the advances. I had been seated but a moment when this
pair that had dashed madly away at my approach dashed as madly back and
very nearly lighted on me, then they dashed away again.
Soon, however, they came back in more friendly fashion and settled down
within reach of my hand, where I could observe them at leisure. Then I
saw that this was to me a new variety of the dusky-wing, the _Thanaos
persius_ instead of _Thanaos brizo_, as I had thought. _Persius’_
dusky-wing had climbed the hill as I had, to see if summer was coming,
and had found it here. The pale corydalis which nodded columbine-like
heads of softest coral red and yellow knew it too, and drowsed in the
sunshine as did the butterflies, but I went on, seeking more evidence.
On the shore of Hoosic-whissic Pond a wood thrush sits on her nest in a
green-brier clump, within ten feet of noisy picnickers. Bravely she sits
and shields her eggs, nor does she stir for all the riot about her. I
poked my head within the tangle till my face was within two feet of her,
and still she did not move. Her throat swelled a little, and a
questioning look came into her eyes.
The wood thrush is a shy bird at ordinary times, but not when sitting on
her nest. Then she seems to suddenly acquire a modest boldness that is
as becoming as the gentle shyness of other times. We looked at one
another in mutual friendliness. I noted the bright cinnamon brown of the
head fading on the back to a soft olive brown, the whole having the
smoothness and perfect fit of a lady’s glove. The white throat and some
of the black markings on the white breast were visible above the rim of
the nest, and her bill pointed skyward in the trustful, prayerful
attitude of all birds on the nest. Brooding maternity has the same
prayerful sweetness of attitude in the wood thrush that it has in the
human mother. It always suggests white hands clasped and raised in
prayer and thanksgiving.
While I watched the wood thrush, a quick gleam of gold and black caught
my eye as it danced by in the sunshine outside the thicket. Here was a
promise of summer, indeed, and I followed it on, leaving the brooding
thrush to her happiness. It led across the open, sandy plain to the
south, and into the deep wood beyond. On the way the cinquefoil and
buttercups, the strawberry blossoms and the running blackberries were
gay with fluttering little red butterflies, the coppers and the crescent
spots, and whites and blues, a kaleidoscope of shifting colors, but it
was not until I got into the deep golden shade of the dense wood that I
saw the fulfilment of the promise.
Here in the glow of sunlight so strained and etherealized by passing
through fluttering green that it was all one mist of color, a vivid
heart of chrysoprase, I found the wood full of great yellow
butterflies,
[Illustration: Her bill pointed skyward in the trustful, prayerful
attitude of all birds on the nest]
dozens of them dancing up and down in the soft radiance, and lighting to
put gorgeous yellow blossoms on twigs that could never put forth such
beauty again. Here was the summer, coming sedately through the
gold-green spaces of the wood with scores of golden spirits dancing
joyously about her. The “tiger swallowtail,” _Papilio turnus_, as the
lepidopterists have named him, is the most beautiful of all our
butterflies, painted in gold with black margins, and a single touch of
scarlet cunningly applied to each wing. All the glow of summer seems to
be concentrated in him, and his presence is the final test of hers.
INDEX
A
Actias luna, 57
Adam, 98
Ajax, 238
Alder, 33, 55, 98, 194
---- catkins, 37, 146
---- red, 192
Alice-in-Wonderland, 202
Alligator, 216, 217
---- snapper, 216
Amazon, 118
Angler, Compleat, 231
Angle-wing, 144, 145
Angleworm, 221, 222, 225, 227, 228, 232
Ant, 228
Antiopa vanessa, 62
Apple tree, 18, 19, 43, 137, 141, 143
Appomattox, 135
April fool’s day, 5
Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, 82, 253
Arctic, 19, 35, 36, 68
---- circle, 5
Ariel, 58, 129
Ark, 85
Aster, 140, 150
B
Babylon, 124
Bach, 172
Bagdad, 124
Barberry, 100, 270, 271
Bayberry, 166
Beagles, 43
Bear, 79
Beaver, 76
Bee, 105, 146
---- honey, 205
Bedlam, 43
Beech, 79
Benzoin, 53
Berry bush, 165
Birch, 11, 75, 103, 105, 108, 126
---- swamp, 125, 180
Bittern, 210, 214, 218
Blackberry, running, 278
Blackbird, 50, 73, 74, 167
Blueberry, swamp, 105
Bluebirds, 18, 19, 32, 33, 34, 50, 51, 107, 167
Boa-constrictor, 215
Bobolinks, 223
Bog-hobble, 77
Bog-hopple, 200
Borer, 76
Bubo, 6
---- virginianum, 4
Bufflehead, 59, 60
Bulrushes, 77
Bumblebee, 205
Buttercup, 149, 278
Butterfly, angle-wing, 144, 145
---- brown, 223
---- blue, 278
---- common blue, 174
---- Compton tortoise, 145, 276
---- coppers, 278
---- crescent spot, 278
---- dusky-wing, 224, 275, 276
---- Grapta, 144
---- Grapta comma, 144
---- Grapta interrogationis, 144
---- hesperid, 146
---- hesperidæ, 223
---- hunters’, 141, 142, 146
---- Melitæa harrisi, 274
---- mourning cloak, 145, 146
---- Nycteis, 275
---- painted lady, 146
---- Papilio turnus, 279
---- Phyciodes nycteis, 274
---- question mark, 146
---- red, 278
---- skipper, 146, 223
---- skipper, silver spotted, 146
---- tiger swallowtail, 279
---- white, 271, 278
---- yellow, 278
---- Thanaos brizo, 244, 276
---- Thanaos persius, 276
---- Vanessa antiopa, 62, 145
---- Vanessa j-album, 145
Buttonball, 189
Buttonbush, 85, 86
C
Callosamia promethea, 55
Caribbean, 9
Caspian, 131
Cassandra, 177, 203, 204, 205, 211
Catbird, 181, 211
Cæsar, 72
Cecropia, 58
Cedar, 118, 119, 125, 194, 211, 213, 214, 245, 269, 270, 273
---- pasture, 48, 181, 182, 184, 189, 196
---- swamp, 209
---- white, 209
Cetraria, 121
Chelydra serpentina, 216
Cherry, 223, 264
Cherry, wild, 12, 53, 165
Chestnut, 56
Chewink, 180, 181
Chickadee, 75, 126, 211
Chickweed, 146
Chrysanthemum, 122
Cicada, 266
Cinquefoil, 103, 149, 278
Cladonia, 147
---- brown-fruited, 147
---- scarlet-crested, 147
Cliff-dwellers, 84
Clover, white, 205
Columbine, wild, 269, 270
Columbus, 119
Compositæ, 276
Compton tortoise, 145
Conifers, 184
Copper, 278
Corydalis, pale, 276
Cranberries, 203
Creeper, 211
---- black and white, 191
Crescent spot, 278
Cromwell, 115
Cudweed, 142
Cymbifolium, 122
D
Daffodil, 25
Dahlia, 39
Daisy, 68
Dandelion, 69, 146, 149, 267
Daphne, 99, 107, 108
---- mezereum, 107
Darwin, 221, 224, 225, 232
“Dead March,” 160
Dog, wolf, 36
Dogwood, flowering, 271, 272
Doone, Lorna, 94
---- Valley, 98
Dove, turtle, 207
Drake, 59
Duck, 33, 34, 59, 60, 118, 127
---- black, 59, 78, 84, 85
---- bufflehead, 59
---- diver, 59
---- goldeneyes, 34
---- sheldrake, 78
---- whistler, 34
Dragon, 215, 218
---- flies, 223, 274
Dusky-wing, 224, 276
E
Earthworm, 221, 224, 225
Easter, 17, 121, 164
Eden, 70, 81
Eel, 95, 225, 231, 232, 233, 235, 236, 237, 239
---- electric, 235
Egrets, snowy, 243, 244
Elephant, 253
Elm, 178
Eskimo, 36, 139
Es-Sindibad, 253
Ethiopians, 13
Euphrates, 124, 126, 130, 131
Eurydice, 95
Eve, 98
F
Faun, 177
Federal Government, 189
Felis domesticatus, 248
Fern, tree, 162
---- cinnamon, 266
Flicker, 75, 76
Flies, artificial, 222
---- dragon, 223, 274
Flowering dogwood, 271, 272
Fox, 79, 99, 100, 179
Frog, 73, 130
---- green, 191
---- hyla, 128, 190, 191, 205, 208
---- leopard, 190, 195, 205, 206
---- peepers, 129
---- swamp tree, 162, 164, 174
---- wood, 127, 190, 191
G
Garden, Mary, 229
Gaul, 72
Gettysburg, 135
Gerardia, 268, 269, 270
Goldeneyes, 34
Goldenrod, 140, 150
Goldfinch, 52, 172, 174
Grapta, 144
---- comma, 144
---- interrogationis, 144
Grasshopper, 222
Green-brier, 180
Greenland, 9
H
Hampstead Ponds, 111, 124
Hardhack, 189
Hare, March, 43, 44, 45, 63
Havre, 8
Hawk, 78, 247
Hawthorne, 114
Hemlock, 89
Hepatica, 13, 14, 16, 63, 100, 146
Heron, 246, 249
---- black-crowned, night, 243, 246, 247
---- great blue, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256
---- little green, 256, 258
Heron, night, 244, 245, 246, 247, 252
Hesperids, 146
Hesperidæ, 223
Hill, Blue, 267
---- Great Blue, 77
Hook of Holland, 8
Hoosic-whissic Pond, 276
Huckleberry, 48, 158
Hudson’s Bay, 67, 160, 171
Humboldt, 131
Hummingbird, 266, 267
Hunter, 146
Hyla, 128, 190, 191, 205, 208
I
Indian, 73, 116, 182, 206, 216, 217
---- bogies, 200
---- Ponkapog, 200
Ironsides, 115
J
Jay, blue, 168, 169
---- Canada, 5
Jericho, 73
Joepye weed, 77
K
Khayyam, Omar, 114
Kingbird, 191
Kingfisher, 50, 168, 192, 193, 194
L
Lamphrey, 231
Larch, 184, 186
Lark, meadow, 168
Laurel, mountain, 85
Lent, 189
Lichen, 121
Lilac, 115, 148
---- purple, 113, 114
Lincoln, 117
Lorna Doone, 94
Luna, 58
M
Mab, 58
Macbeth, 172
Mangrove, 85, 86, 189
Maple, 13, 75, 105, 126, 128, 146, 189, 194
Marsh grass, 77
---- St. John’s-wort, 77, 140
Meadow lark, 168
Meadow-sweet, 189
Melitæa harrisi, 274
Memorial day, 71
Milkweed, 148
Mole, 229
Moose, 79
Moss, cedar, 122
---- cetraria, 121
---- cushion, 123
---- lichen, 121
---- Mnium, dotted, 123
---- Mnium punctatum, 123
---- Parmelia, 121
---- Peat, 201, 246
---- Sphagnum, 89, 122, 124
---- Sphagnum acutifolia, 122
---- Sphagnum cymbifolium, 122
---- Sphagnum squarrosum, 122
---- Sphagnum stictas, 121
Moth, callosamia promethia, 54
---- luna, 57
---- spice-bush silk, 53
---- Polyphemus, 57, 58, 60
---- Promethea, 58
---- Telia polyphemus, 56
Mountain laurel, 85
Mourning cloak, 145, 146
Mullein, 140, 150, 151
Muskrat, 212, 213, 218
Myles, 115
N
Neptune, 249
Neptune’s trident, 93
Nesæa, 200
New England, 115, 159, 225
Newfoundland, 9
Niagara, 273
Nicaragua, 179
Nile, 118
Nimbus, 67
Norman conquest, 72
Nycteis, 275
Nycticorax nycticorax nævius, 243, 251
O
Oak, 45, 98, 128
---- scrub, 13, 44, 147, 179
“Old Farmer’s Almanack,” 19
Orchid, 39, 124
Orinoco, 118, 124
Oriole, Baltimore, 178, 179
Ovenbird, 223
Owl, barred, 5, 78
---- horned, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 18, 19, 44
P
Painted lady, 146
Pan, 128
Papilio turnus, 279
Paradise, 98
Partridge, 4
Parmelia, 121
---- conspersa, 83
Pasture Pines Hotel, 33, 34
Peat, 89, 199
---- moss, 201
Peepers, 129
Perch, white, 59, 192
Perseus, 276
Persian, 114
Peterborough River, 239
Peter the Hermit, 117
Phyciodes nycteis, 274
Pickerel, 163
---- weed, 163
Pickwick Club, 111
Pickwick, Samuel, 111, 124
Pine, 24, 25, 27, 29, 32, 60, 61, 62, 63, 114, 147, 170, 265
---- pitch, 168
Pineapple, 186
Plato, 247
Plutonian, 97
Plymouth, 115
Polo, Marco, 124
Polyphemus, 57, 58, 60
Ponkapog brook, 112
Ponkapog pond, 79, 84, 111, 199, 217
Poplar, 272
Poseidon, 93
Pride, 231
Priscilla, 115
Promethea, 58
Puck, 58
Pumpkin, 228
Puritans, 204, 248
Pussy-willows, 98
Q
“Quawk,” 243
Question mark, 146
R
Rabbit, 4
---- Welsh, 202
Rana clamitans, 191
Rattlesnake, 79
Ridd, John, 94, 98
Robin, 33, 52, 74, 167, 178, 191, 226, 227, 228, 230, 263
---- snow, 68, 69
Robin Hood, 171
Roc, 253
Rookery, 23
Roosevelt, 117
S
Saki, 114
Salmon, 91
Samia cecropia, 10, 13, 20, 55, 56
Saskatchewan, 174
Sassafras, 53
Saul, 160
Saxifrage, 71, 269
Saxons, 13
Schumann, 172
Shadbush, 158, 165
Shagbark tree, 76
Shakespeare, 245
Skipper, 146, 223
Skunk-cabbage, 39
Smilax, 105
Snake, water, 95, 96, 97
Snowdrop, 146
Snow, robin, 68, 69
Sousa, 229
Southampton, 8
Sparrow, 173
---- chipping, 168, 211
---- fox, 103, 168, 180
---- song, 32, 33, 34, 36, 50, 51, 63, 130, 167, 211
---- vesper, 130
Sphagnum, 89, 122, 124
---- acutifolia, 122
---- cymbifolium, 122
---- squarrosum, 122
Spicebush, 195, 196
Spirea formentosa, 189
---- salicifolia, 189
Squirrel, 76
---- red, 11, 125
---- gray, 11
Sticta, 121
St. John’s-wort, marsh, 79, 140
Strawberry, 186, 264, 278
Suckers, 90, 92, 96, 98
Swallow, barn, 196
Swamp, cedar, 19
---- Pigeon, 3, 6
Sweet fern, 165, 166, 167
Sweet gale, 165, 166, 167, 173, 174
Switzerland, 252
Sycorax, 245
T
Talbot plains, 77
Tanager, 263, 265, 267
---- scarlet, 264
Telia polyphemus, 56
Terrapin, 217
Thames, 231
Thanaos brizo, 224, 276
Thanaos persius, 276
Thoroughwort, 77
Thrush, 180, 211
---- brown, 179, 180, 181
---- wood, 276, 277
Tibet, 118
Tiger swallowtail, 279
Tigris, 124, 126, 131
Titania, 58
Tropics, 7
Tulips, 37
Turtle, 95, 188, 207, 208, 209, 217
---- dove, 207
---- mock, 202
---- snapping, 216, 217
---- spotted, 207, 218
U
Usnea barbata, 12
V
Vanessa antiopa, 145
---- j-album, 146
Viburnum, 165
Violets, 15, 68, 103, 146, 149
---- dwarf blue, 71
Vireo, warbling, 77
W
Walnut, 57
Walrus, 203
Walton, Izaak, 231, 239
Warbler, 211
Washington, 117
Waterloo, 92
Water-lily, 202
---- parsnip, 190
---- snake, 95, 96, 97
West of England’s moors, 94
Wheeler place, 24
Whip-poor-will, 261, 262, 263, 265
Whistlers, 34
Willow, 13, 17, 32, 33, 100, 107, 146, 187, 189, 191, 192
---- pussy, 98
Woodchuck, 100
Woodcock, 5
Woodpecker, 75, 76
---- downy, 75
Wood pewee, 265, 266, 267
Wright, Orville, 146