The Writings of Henry David Thoreau (Volume 10); Journal, Ed. by B. Torrey, 1837-1846, 1850-Nov. 3, 1861

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1906. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU VOLUME IV I MAY, 1852 GET. 34) May 1. 5 A. M. -- To Cliffs. A smart frost in the night, the plowed ground and platforms white with it. I hear the little forked-tail chipping sparrow (Fringilla socialis) shaking out his rapid tchi-tchi-tchi-tchi-tchi-tchi, a little jingle, from the oak behind the Depot. I hear the note of the shy Savannah sparrow (F. Savanna),1 that plump bird with a dark-streaked breast that runs and hides in the grass, whose note sounds so like a cricket's in the grass. (I used to hear it when I walked by moonlight last sum 1 Probably have seen it before, -- seringo. [Though here, where the "seringo-bird" makes its first appearance in the Journal, its identity with the savanna sparrow seems to have been unquestioned by Thoreau, it proved afterwards (see p. 8., el seq.) to be almost as puzzling to him as the ever elusive "night-warbler." The probability is that the "seringo " in this and most other cases was the savanna sparrow, but it may sometimes have been the yellow-winged, or grasshopper, sparrow, or even, as Thoreau once suspected, the grass finch, or vesper sparrow. It is quite likely that at times the bird he saw was not the bird he heard.] mer.) I hear it now from deep in the sod, -- for there is hardly grass yet. The bird keeps so low you do not see it. You do not suspect how many there are till at length their heads appear. The word seringo reminds me of its note, -- as if it were produced by some kind of fine metallic spring. It is an earth-sound. It is a moist, lowering morning for the mayers. The sun now shines under a cloud in the horizon, and his still yellow light falls on the western fields, as sometimes on the eastern after a shower in a summer afternoon. Nuttall says the note of the chipping sparrow is "given ...