Books: The Writings of John Burroughs
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Later in the morning, we were attracted by another craft. We heard
it coming down upon us long before it emerged into view. It made a
sound as of some unwieldy creature slowly pawing the water, and
when it became visible through the fog the sight did not belie the
ear. We beheld an awkward black hulk that looked as if it might
have been made out of the bones of the first steamboat, or was it
some Virginia colored man's study of that craft? Its wheels
consisted each of two timbers crossing each other at right angles.
As the shaft slowly turned, these timbers pawed and pawed the
water. It hove to on the flats near our quarters, and a colored
man came off in a boat. To our inquiry, he said with a grin that
his craft was a "floating saw-mill."
After a while I took my turn in the box, and, with a life-preserver
for a pillow, lay there on my back, pressed down between the narrow
sides, the muzzle of my gun resting upon my toe and its stock upon
my stomach, waiting for the silly ducks to come. I was rather in
hopes they would not come, for I felt pretty certain that I could
not get up promptly in such narrow quarters and deliver my shot
with any precision. As nothing could be seen, and as it was very
still, it was a good time to listen again. I was virtually under
water, and in a good medium for the transmission of sounds. The
barking of dogs on the Maryland shore was quite audible, and I
heard with great distinctness a Maryland lass call some one to
breakfast. They were astir up at Mount Vernon, too, though the fog
hid them from view. I heard the mocking or Carolina wren
alongshore calling quite plainly the words a Georgetown poet has
put in his mouth,--"Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweet!" Presently I
heard the whistle of approaching wings, and a solitary duck
alighted back of me over my right shoulder,--just the most awkward
position for me she could have assumed. I raised my head a little,
and skimmed the water with my eye. The duck was swimming about
just beyond the decoys, apparently apprehensive that she was
intruding upon the society of her betters. She would approach a
little, and then, as the stiff, aristocratic decoys made no sign of
welcome or recognition, she would sidle off again. "Who are they,
that they should hold themselves so loftily and never condescend to
notice a forlorn duck?" I imagined her saying. Should I spring up
and show my hand and demand her surrender? It was clearly my duty
to do so. I wondered if the boys were looking from shore, for the
fog had lifted a little. But I must act, or the duck would be off.
I began to turn slowly in my sepulchre and to gather up my benumbed
limbs; I then made a rush and got up, and had a fairly good shot as
the duck flew across my bows, but I failed to stop her. A man in
the woods in the line of my shot cried out angrily, "Stop shooting
this way!"
I lay down again and faced the sun, that had now burned its way
through the fog, till I was nearly blind, but no more ducks
decoyed, and I called out to be relieved.
With our one duck, but with many pleasant remembrances, we returned
to Washington that afternoon.
INDEX
ABUTILON, or velvet-leaf.
Ailanthus.
Alder, white.
Amaranth, 215.
Arbutus, trailing, or mayflower.
Arethusa.
Arkville.
Arnold, George.
Ash.
Asters.
Azalea, pink, or pinxter-flower.
Azalea, smooth.
Azalea, white.
Azalea, yellow.
Ball, an inexpensive.
Bark-a-boom.
Baxter's Brook.
Bay, sweet.
Bear, black, attacked with a club.
Bear-weed.
Beattie, James, quotation from.
Beaver, 173.
Bee. See Bumblebee, Honey-bee, and Sweat-bee.
Bee, solitary.
Beech.
Berries.
Bidens, or two-teeth, or pitchforks.
Big Beaver Kill.
Big Mountain.
Bindweed, black.
Birch, yellow.
Birds, singing at night; morning awakening of; individuality in the
songs of; in poetry; process of hatching; leaving the nest; arrival
in spring; love-making among; war among; their departure in the
fall; a good season for; songs of, in America and in England.
Birds of prey, their flight when laden.
Blackbird, cow, or cowbird (MOLOTHRUS ATER).
Blackbird, crow, or purple grackle (QUISCALUS QUISCULA).
Blackbird, European, in poetry; his resemblance to the American
robin; notes of.
Blackbird, red-winged. See Starling, red-shouldered.
Blackbird, rusty. See Grackle, rusty.
Bladderwort, horned.
Bluebird (SIALIA SIALIS), in poetry; notes of; nest of.
Blue-weed, or viper's bugloss; travels of; description of.
Boat, a picturesque.
Bobolink (DOLICHONYX ORYZIVORUS; as a wooer; notes of.
Bob-white. See Quail.
Bouncing Bet, or saponaria.
Boys.
Bryant, William Cullen; as a poet of nature; quotations from.
Buckwheat, wild.
Bugloss.
Bugloss, viper's. See Blue-weed.
Bullfrog.
Bumblebee; nest of.
Bunting, English.
Bunting, indigo. See Indigo-bird.
Bunting, snow, or snowflake (PASSERINA NIVALIS).
Burdock.
Burns, Robert, quotation from.
Butt End.
Buttercup.
Caledonia springs.
Calopogon.
Camping; in the rain.
Campion, bladder.
Cardinal (CARDINALIS CARDINALIS); notes of.
Cardinal flower. See Lobelia, scarlet.
Carrot, wild.
Catbird (GALEOSCOPTES CAROLINENSIS), in poetry; notes of.
Catnip.
Catskill Mountains.
Cattle, crossing a river; as eaters of weeds.
Cedar-bird, or cedar waxwing (AMPELIS CEDRORUM.
Chamomile.
Chewink, or towhee (PIPILO ERYTHROPHTHALMUS).
Chickadee (PARUS ATRICAPILLUS); nest of.
Chickweed; at the antipodes.
Chicory, or succory; in poetry.
Chipmunk.
Chippie. See Sparrow.
Chough.
Cicada, or harvest-fly.
Claytonia, or spring beauty.
Clematis, wild.
Clouds, boat-shaped.
Clover.
Clover, white.
Cochecton Falls.
Cockle.
Colchester.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, quotation from.
Coltsfoot.
Coltsfoot, sweet.
Columbine.
Companions, outdoor.
Cone-flower.
Coon. See Raccoon.
Cormorant.
Corn, Indian.
Cowbird. See Blackbird, cow.
Cows. See Cattle.
Cowslip. See Marigold, marsh.
Cowslip, English.
Creeper, brown (CERTHIA FAMILIARIS AMERICANA), nest of.
Crickets. See Tree-crickets.
Crow American (CORVUS BRACHYRHYNCHOS), gait of; notes of.
Cuckoo (COCCYZUS sp.), heard at night; habits of; in poetry; notes
of.
Cuckoo, European.
Cuckoo-buds.
Cuckoo-flower.
Cuckoo-pint.
Cypripedium. See Lady's-slipper.
Daffodil.
Daisy, English.
Daisy, ox-eye.
Dandelion.
Darnel.
Day, a white.
Dead-nettle.
Delaware River, Pepacton branch of. See Pepacton River.
Dentaria.
Deposit.
Dicentra, or squirrel corn.
Dock, curled-leaf.
Dock, yellow.
Doctor, the (a snake).
Dog, Cuff and the woodchucks. See Greyhound and Hound.
Dog, farm, hound and.
Dogbane.
Dove, mourning (ZENAIDURA MACROURA).
Doves.
Downsville.
Dry Brook.
Ducks, feeding.
Duck-shooting on the Potomac.
Eagle, chased by a kingbird; flight of an.
East Branch.
Elecampane.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, quotations from; his knowledge of nature.
England, bird-songs in; pedestrianism in; the footpaths of; the
highways of.
Esopus.
Eupatorium, purple.
Falcon, haggard.
Finch, purple (CARPODACUS PURPUREUS; notes of.
Fisherman, an ancient.
Fishes, spring movements of.
Fleabane, or whiteweed.
Flicker. See High-hole.
Flowers, wild, in poetry; fragrant.
Footpaths, lack of, in America; English; a schoolboy's footpath.
Forenoon, as distinguished from morning.
Fort Washington.
Fox, red, and hound,; hunting a; favorite sleeping places of; hard
fare in winter; an encounter between rivals.
Fringed-orchis, purple.
Frog. See Bullfrog.
Frog, clucking. See Wood-frog.
Frog, peeping. See Hyla, Pickering's.
Garlic.
Gentian, closed.
Gentian, fringed, 63; Bryant's poem on.
Gill.
Girls.
Goethe.
Goldenrod.
Goldfinch, American (ASTRAGALINUS TRISTIS; pairing habits of; notes
of.
Goose-foot.
Grackle, purple. See Blackbird, crow.
Grackle, rusty, or rusty blackbird (EUPHAGUS CAROLINUS), notes of.
Grass, the natural covering of the fields.
Grass, harvest.
Grass, quack.
Grass, quitch.
Green Cove Spring.
Greyhound.
Ground-nut.
Grouse, ruffed, or partridge (BONASA UMBELLUS), in poetry; drumming
of.
"Gums,".
Gum-tree.
Haggard.
Hancock.
Hare, northern.
Hares.
Harrisonburg, Va.
Harvard.
Harvest-fly. See Cicada.
Hawk, in poetry, 116. See Hen-hawk.
Hawkfish. See Osprey, American.
Hawk's Point.
Hedgehog.
Hedge-sparrow.
Hemlock, poison.
Henbane.
Hen-hawk.
Hepatica, or liver-leaf; the first spring flower; an intermittently
fragrant flower.
Hercules.
Heron.
Heron, great blue (ARDEA HERODIAS; notes of, 24, 28.
High-hole, or golden-winged woodpecker, or flicker (COLAPTES
AURATUS LUTEUS; notes of; nest of.
Highlands of the Hudson, the.
Holywell.
Honey, flowers which yield.
Honey-bee, a product of civilization; wandering habits of; hunting
wild bees; method of handling; as robbers; enemies of; Virgil on.
Honeysuckle.
Hooker, Sir Joseph.
Hop-clover.
Hornet, black.
Hornet, sand.
Hound, fox and.
Hound's-tongue.
Housatonic River.
Houstonia, or innocence.
Humble-bee. See Bumblebee.
Humming-bird, ruby-throated (TROCHILUS COLUBRIS), in poetry; nest
of.
Hunt, Helen, quotation from.
Hyacinth, wild.
Hyla, Pickering's, or peeping frog; arboreal life of.
Hylas, the story of.
Indigo-bird or indigo bunting (CYANOSPIZA CYANEA; notes of.
Innocence. See Houstonia.
Insects, nocturnal.
Iron-weed.
Ivy.
Ivy, poison.
Jack, catching.
Jay, blue (CYANOCITTA CRISTATA; notes of.
Jewel-weed.
Junco, slate-colored. See Snowbird.
Katydids.
Kingbird (TYRANNUS TYRANNUS), chasing an eagle; as a bee-eater;
notes of.
Kingfisher, belted (CERYLE ALCYON.
Knapp, Hon. Charles.
Knot-grass.
Lady's-slipper, large yellow.
Lady's-slipper, purple.
Lady's-slipper, small yellow.
Lady's tresses.
Lake Oquaga.
Lamprey.
Lapwing.
Lark. See Skylark.
Lark, shore or horned (OTOCORIS ALPESTRIS and O. A. PRATICOLA) and
note.
Larkspur.
Laurel, mountain.
Leeks.
Lettuce, wild, 230, inden.
Linnæa.
Live-forever.
Liver-leaf. See Hepatica.
Lobelia, great blue.
Lobelia, scarlet, or cardinal flower.
Locust-tree.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, his inaccuracy in dealing with
nature; quotations from.
Loosestrife.
Loosestrife, hairy.
Loosestrife, spiked, travels of; description of.
Lowell, James Russell, quotations from; his fidelity to nature.
Mallow.
Mandrake.
Maple, sugar; fragrance of its blossoms.
Marigold, marsh.
Martin, purple (PROGNE SUBIS).
Masque of the Poets, A, quotation from.
Mayflower. See Arbutus, trailing.
Mayweed.
Meadowlark (STURNELLA MAGNA); notes of.
Merganser, hooded (LOPHODYTES CUCULLATUS), with a brood of young.
Mice.
Milkweed.
Mink.
Mitchella vine, or squaw-berry, or partridge-berry.
Moccasin.
Mockingbird (MIMUS POLYGLOTTOS), in poetry.
Morning and forenoon, distinction between.
Motherwort.
Mount Vernon.
Mouse, field.
Mouse, white-footed, 169; tracks of.
Mullein; habits of.
Mullein, moth.
Mullein, white.
Musconetcong Creek.
Muskrat; a weatherwise animal; active in winter; nests of.
Mustard, wild.
Nature, the poets' intuitive knowledge of; Emerson's knowledge of;
Bryant's knowledge of; Longfellow's inaccuracy in dealing with;
Whittier's treatment of; Lowell's fidelity to Tennyson's accurate
observations of; Walt Whitman a close student of; the poetic
interpretation of; the scientific interpretation of.
Negro girl, a conversation with a.
Nettle.
Nettle, blind.
Nettle, hemp.
Nighthawk (CHORDEILES VIRGINIANUS.
Nightshade.
Note in the woods, a new.
Oak, white.
Onion, wild.
Opossum.
Orchids, American flora rich in.
Orchis, fringed. See Fringed-orchis.
Orchis, showy.
Oriole, Baltimore (ICTERUS GALBULA); as a fruit-destroyer; notes
of; nest of.
Orpine, garden. See Live-forever.
Orpines, native.
Osprey, American, or fish hawk (PANDION HALIAËTUS CAROLINENSIS),
feeding on the wing.
Otter.
Oven-bird (SEIURUS AUROCAPILLUS); song of.
Owl, screech (MEGASCOPS ASIO), and shrike.
Oxlip.
Pain, in relation to the nervous system.
Parsnip, wild.
Partridge. See Grouse, ruffed.
Partridge-berry. See Mitchella vine.
Partridge Island.
Pepacton River; a voyage down.
Pewee, wood (CONTOPUS VIRENS), Trowbridge's poem on.
Phbe-bird (SAYORNIS PHBE); notes of; nest of.
Pigeon, passenger (ECTOPISTES MIGRATORIUS).
Pigeons.
Pigweed.
Pine, loblolly, 247.
Pinxter-flower. See Azalea, pink.
Pipit, American. See Titlark.
Pitchforks. See Biclens.
Plantain.
Plantain, narrow-leaved.
Pliny, his account of an intermittent spring.
Poets, their intuitive knowledge of nature; inaccuracies and
felicities in matters of natural history; their interpretation of
nature.
Pogonia, adder's-tongue.
Pokeweed.
Polygala, fringed.
Pond-lily, or sweet-scented water lily.
Pond-lily, yellow.
Poppy, scarlet field.
Porcupine, Canadian.
Potomac River, duck-shooting on.
Primrose, in poetry.
Primrose, evening.
Prince's pine.
Purslane.
Pyrola. See Wintergreen, false.
Quail, or bob-white (COLINUS VIRGINIANUS.
Rabbit, gray.
Rabbits.
Raccoon, or coon.
Radish, wild.
Rafting on the Delaware.
Ragweed; a troublesome weed.
Rain, arboreal; summer.
Raspberry.
Rat, wood.
Redbird. See Cardinal.
Redpoll (ACANTHIS LINARIA), notes; of.
Red-root.
Rhododendron.
River, a voyage down a; loneliness of the.
Roads, in England and America.
Robin, American (MERULA MIGRATORIA); in poetry; in love and war;
notes of; nest of.
Rondout Creek.
Roots, like molten metal.
St. John's-wort.
Salamander, banded.
Salamander, red.
Salamander, violet-colored or spotted.
San Antonio, Texas.
Saponaria. See Bouncing Bet.
Sapsucker, yellow-bellied. See-Woodpecker, yellow-bellied.
Sawmill, a floating.
Scott, Sir Walter.
SEDUM TELEPHIOIDES.
SEDUM TERNATUM.
Shagbark.
Shairp, John Campbell, his POETIC INTERPRETATION OF NATURE.
Shakespeare, quotations from; his accuracy in observation.
Shavertown.
Shawangunk Mountains.
Shepherd's purse.
Shrew.
Shrike.
Skunk.
Skunk-cabbage.
Skylark; on the Hudson; song of.
Snail.
Snake.
Snake, black.
Snow, a landscape of; in the woods.
Snowbird, slate-colored, or slate-colored junco (JUNCO HYEMALIS),
in poetry; notes of.
Snowflake. See Bunting, snow.
Sodom.
Sorrel, sheep.
Sparrow, bush or Held (SPIZELLA PUSILLA.
Sparrow, English (PASSER DOMESTICUS), manner of courtship.
Sparrow, social or chipping, or "chippie" (SPIZELLA SOCIALIS).
Sparrow, song (MELOSPIZA CINEREA MELODIA); notes of.
Sparrow, vesper (POCETES GRAMINEUS), rejecting the attentions of a
skylark.
Specularia, clasping.
Spider, killing a bee; a musical.
Spring, sudden coming of, 160-168.
Spring beauty. See Claytonia.
Springs, paths leading to; their universal attractiveness; centres
of greenness; symbolism of; locations of; fondness of trout for;
physiology of; their mineral elements; large; as refrigerators;
countries poor in; on mountains; places of worship; various kinds
of; marvelous; intermittent; in the Idyls of Theocritus.
Squaw-berry. See Mitchella vine.
Squirrel, flying.
Squirrel, gray.
Squirrel, Mexican black.
Squirrel, red.
Squirrel corn. See Dicentra.
Squirrels, as parachutes.
Star, shooting.
Starling, red-shouldered, or red winged blackbird, notes of.
Stedman, Edmund Clarence, his SEEKING THE MAYFLOWER.
Stevenson, Robert Louis, his TRAVELS WITH A DONKEY.
Stick-seed.
Stones, life under.
Stramonium.
Strawberries, wild.
Succory. See Chicory.
Sumac.
Swallow, bank (RIPARIA RIPARIA).
Swallow, barn (HIRUNDO ERYTHROGASTRA); nest of.
Swallow, chimney, or chimney swift (CHÆTURA PELAGICA), nest of.
Swallow, cliff (PETROCHELIDON LUNIFRONS), in poetry; nest of.
Swallow, European.
Swallows, in poetry.
Sweat-bee.
Tails, uses of.
Tansy.
Tare. See Vetch.
Teasle.
Tennyson, Alfred, quotations from; a good observer.
Theocritus, quotation from.
Thistle, Canada.
Thistle, common.
Thistle, pasture.
Thistle, swamp.
Thomson, James, quotation from.
Thrasher, brown (TOXOSTOMA RUFUM), song of.
Thrush, hermit (HYLOCICHLA GUTTATA PALLASII), in poetry; notes of.
Thrush, wood (HYLOCICHLA MUSTELINA), notes of.
Titlark, or American pipit (ANTHUS PENSILVANICUS).
Toad. See Tree-toad.
Toad-flax.
Tobacco.
Tortoise.
Towhee. See Chewink.
Tree-crickets.
Tree-toad.
Trout, brook, their fondness for springs; caught with tickling.
Trout-fishing.
Trowbridge, John T., his natural history; quotations from.
Turkey, wild (MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO SILVESTRIS).
Turtle.
Turtle-head.
Twin-flower. See Linnæa.
Two-teeth. See Bidens.
Velvet-leaf. See Abutilon.
Venus's looking-glass.
Vervain.
Vetch, or tare.
Violet, in poetry.
Violet, Canada; its fragrance.
Violet, common blue.
Violet, English.
Violet, white.
Violet, yellow.
Vireo, in poetry.
Virgil, on honey-bees; quotations from.
Walking, in England; a simple and natural pastime.
Warbler, yellow-rumped, or myrtle (DENDROICA CORONATA).
Wasp, sand. See Hornet, sand.
Water-lily. See Pond-lily.
Waxwing, cedar. See Cedar-bird.
Weasel.
Weebutook River.
Weeds; their devotion to man; the gardener and the farmer the best
friends of; Nature's makeshift; great travelers; their abundance in
America; native and foreign; the growth of; escaped from
cultivation; beautiful; uses of various; less persistent and
universal than grass; virtues of.
Well of St. Winifred.
Wheat, winter.
Whip-poor-will (ANTROSTOMUS VOCIFERUS), song of.
Whiteweed. See Fleabane.
Whitman, Walt, a close student of American nature; quotations from.
Whittier, John Greenleaf, as a poet of nature; quotations from.
Winchester, Va.
Wintergreen, false, or pyrola.
Wintergreen, spotted.
Witch-hazel, 101.
Woodchuck.
Wood-frog.
Woodpecker, in poetry.
Woodpecker, downy (DRYOBATES PUBESCENS MEDIANUS).
Woodpecker, golden-winged. See High-hole.
Woodpecker, yellow-bellied, or yellow-bellied sapsucker
(SPHYRAPICIUS VARIUS), drumming of.
Wood-pigeons.
Wood-sorrel, common.
Wood-sorrel, yellow.
Wordsworth, William, quotations from.
Wren, Carolina (THRYOTHORUS LUDOVICIANUS), notes of.
Wren, house (TROGLODYTES AËDON), notes of; nest of.
Yarrow.
Yellow-jacket.
Yew, American.
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