The Writings of John Burroughs | Page 7

heard the Virginia cardinal whistle so loudly and
persistently in the tree- tops above, that sleeping after four o'clock was
out of the question. Just before the sun is up, there is a marked lull,
during which, I imagine, the birds are at breakfast. While building their
nest, it is very early in the morning that they put in their big strokes; the
back of their day's work is broken before you have begun yours.
A lady once asked me if there was any individuality among the birds,
or if those of the same kind were as near alike as two peas. I was
obliged to answer that to the eye those of the same species were as near
alike as two peas, but that in their songs there were often marks of
originality. Caged or domesticated birds develop notes and traits of

their own, and among the more familiar orchard and garden birds one
may notice the same tendency. I observe a great variety of songs, and
even qualities of voice, among the orioles and among the song
sparrows. On this trip my ear was especially attracted to some striking
and original sparrow songs. At one point I was half afraid I had let pass
an opportunity to identify a new warbler, but finally concluded it was a
song sparrow. On another occasion I used to hear day after day a
sparrow that appeared to have some organic defect in its voice: part of
its song was scarcely above a whisper, as if the bird was suffering from
a very bad cold. I have heard a bobolink and a hermit thrush with
similar defects of voice. I have heard a robin with a part of the whistle
of the quail in his song. It was out of time and out of tune, but the robin
seemed insensible of the incongruity, and sang as loudly and as
joyously as any of his mates. A catbird will sometimes show a special
genius for mimicry, and I have known one to suggest very plainly some
notes of the bobolink.
There are numerous long covered bridges spanning the Delaware, and
under some of these I saw the cliff swallow at home, the nests being
fastened to the under sides of the timbers,--as it were, suspended from
the ceiling instead of being planted upon the shelving or perpendicular
side, as is usual with them. To have laid the foundation, indeed, to have
sprung the vault downward and finished it successfully, must have
required special engineering skill. I had never before seen or heard of
these nests being so placed. But birds are quick to adjust their needs to
the exigencies of any case. Not long before, I had seen in a deserted
house, on the head of the Rondout, the chimney swallows entering the
chamber through a stove-pipe hole in the roof, and gluing their nests to
the sides of the rafters, like the barn swallows.
I was now, on the third day, well down in the wilds of Colchester, with
a current that made between two and three miles an hour,--just a
summer idler's pace. The atmosphere of the river had improved much
since the first day,--was, indeed, without taint,--and the water was
sweet and good. There were farmhouses at intervals of a mile or so; but
the amount of tillable land in the river valley or on the adjacent
mountains was very small. Occasionally there would be forty or fifty
acres of flat, usually in grass or corn, with a thrifty-looking farmhouse.
One could see how surely the land made the house and its surrounding;

good land bearing good buildings, and poor land poor
In mid-forenoon I reached the long placid eddy at Downsville, and here
again fell in with two boys. They were out paddling about in a boat
when I drew near, and they evidently regarded me in the light of a rare
prize which fortune had wafted them.
"Ain't you glad we come, Benny?" I heard one of them observe to the
other, as they were conducting me to the best place to land. They were
bright, good boys, off the same piece as my acquaintances of the day
before, and about the same ages,-- differing only in being village boys.
With what curiosity they looked me over! Where had I come from;
where was I going; how long had I been on the way; who built my boat;
was I a carpenter, to build such a neat craft, etc.? They never had seen
such a traveler before. Had I had no mishaps? And then they bethought
them of the dangerous passes that awaited me, and in good faith began
to warn and advise me. They had heard the tales of raftsmen, and had
conceived a vivid idea of the perils