Men tire me when I am not constantly greeted and refreshed by the flux of sparkling streams." Thoreau expressed surprise that the veery, the wood-thrush so familiar to New England, was "apparently unknown by the writer of this report." After describing the bird, he added an interesting personal note. He recalled that in his own college days, in Cambridge he had heard the college yard ring with its trill. The boys call it 'yorrick,' from the sound of its querulous and chiding note, as it flits near the traveler through the underwood." The stanzas on the vireo, appearing in a later edition of his poems, are followed by these graphic lines on the crow:—
"Thou dusky spirit of the wood,
Bird of an ancient brood,
Flitting thy lonely way,
A meteor in the summer's day
From wood to wood, from hill to hill,
Low over forest, field and rill,
What would'st thou say?"
Thoreau's journals contain a rich mine of facts, some portions yet unworked; they abound in delicate surmises, that have become established facts since his day, on a variety of themes. He was not alone botanist, nor yet ornithologist; he was conversant, as well, with many phenomena of zoology, woodcraft, piscatorial and nautical details. While
