time referred to, passing up and down before the windows twenty times a day, and several others were going in and out of holes and chinks of the trees in sight. One night there came a hard frost, followed by a fall of snow; the next day six of these pretty blue-birds were picked up dead in one cluster in our own garden, and several others were said to be lying about the grounds. They seemed to have collected together to warm themselves. That summer we saw very few blue-birds, and the following autumn there was scarcely a large flock of them seen in the neighborhood.
Fine sunset; the evening still and quiet. The lake beautiful in its reflections of the sky. Soft barred clouds were floating above the hills, and the color of each lay faithfully repeated on the water;—pink, violet, gray, and blue in successive fields.
Thursday, 28th.—In our walk, this afternoon, observed a broad field upon a hill-side covered with the white silvery heads of the everlastings. The country people sometimes call these plants “moonshine,” and really the effect in the evening upon so broad a field reminded one of moonlight. These flowers deserve the name of “everlasting;” some of them begin to bloom early in the spring, and they continue in blossom until the latest days of autumn. They are extremely common here; one of our characteristic plants.
A noisy flock of blue-jays collected in the wood behind us as we were standing on Mount ——. They were hunting for nuts, and chattering like monkeys. Their cry is anything but musical, but they are certainly very handsome birds. There is another kind of jay—the Canada jay—sometimes seen in this State; it is not so fine a bird as the common sort. These birds are said to
