BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge Copyright, 1894, 1895, BY JOHN BURROUGHS. _All rights reserved._ _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. PREFATORY NOTE I have often said to myself, "Why should not one name his books as he names his children, arbitrarily, and let the name come to mean much or little, as the case may be?" In the case of the present volume—probably my last collection of Out-of-door Papers—I have taken this course, and have given to the book the name of my place here on the Hudson, "Riverby," by the river, where the sketches were written, and where for so many years I have been an interested spectator of the life of nature, as, with the changing seasons, it has ebbed and flowed past my door. J. B. CONTENTS PAGE I. AMONG THE WILD-FLOWERS 1 II. THE HEART OF THE SOUTHERN CATSKILLS 33 III. BIRDS' EGGS 61 IV. BIRD COURTSHIP 77 V. NOTES FROM THE PRAIRIE 87 VI. EYE-BEAMS 111 VII. A YOUNG MARSH HAWK 133 VIII. THE CHIPMUNK 145 IX. SPRING JOTTINGS 155 X. GLIMPSES OF WILD LIFE 171 XI. A LIFE OF FEAR 193 XII. LOVERS OF NATURE 203 XIII. A TASTE OF KENTUCKY BLUE-GRASS 221 XIV. IN MAMMOTH CAVE 241 XV. HASTY OBSERVATION 251 XVI. BIRD LIFE IN AN OLD APPLE-TREE 271 XVII. THE WAYS OF SPORTSMEN 277 XVIII. TALKS WITH YOUNG OBSERVERS 283 INDEX 317 RIVERBY I AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS I