It would have seemed a graceful and appropriate acknowledgment of my rightful ownership of the land on which the cat-bird and the titmice were foraging, had they greeted me with songs. But it would hardly have been courteous for me to propose the matter, and evidently it did not occur to them. At all events, I heard no music except the hoarse and solemn asseverations of the katydids, the gentler message of the crickets, and in the distance an occasional roll-call of the grouse. My dog--who is a much better sportsman than myself, but whose companionship, I am ashamed to see, has not till now been mentioned--was all the while making forays hither and thither into the surrounding woods; and once in a while I heard, what is the best of all music in his ears, the whir of "partridge" wings. Likely as not he thought it a queer freak on my part to spend the afternoon thus idly, when with a gun I might have been so much more profitably employed. He could not know that I was satiating myself with a miser's delights, feasting my eyes upon my own. In truth, I fancy he takes it for granted that the whole forest belongs to me--and to him. Perhaps it does. As I said just now, I sometimes think so myself. FOOTNOTES: [5:1] Since this essay was originally published (in the _Atlantic Monthly_) I have been assured that the author of _The Old Oaken Bucket_ was not born in W----, but in the next town. Being convinced against my will, however, and finding the biographical dictionaries divided upon the point, I conclude to let the text stand unaltered. A WOODLAND INTIMATE. Surely there are times When they consent to own me of their kin, And condescend to me, and call me cousin. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. It is one of the enjoyable features of bird study, as in truth it is of life in general, that so many of its pleasantest experiences have not to be sought after, but befall us by the way; like rare and beautiful flowers, which are never more welcome than when they smile upon us unexpectedly from the roadside.