Produced by Jack Eden. HTML version by Al Haines. WAKE-ROBIN THE WRITINGS OF JOHN BURROUGHS WITH PORTRAITS AND MANY ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME I PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION This is mainly a book about the Birds, or more properly an invitation to the study of Ornithology, and the purpose of the author will be carried out in proportion as it awakens and stimulates the interest of the reader in this branch of Natural History. Though written less in the spirit of exact science than with the freedom of love and old acquaintance, yet I have in no instance taken liberties with facts, or allowed my imagination to influence me to the extent of giving a false impression or a wrong coloring. I have reaped my harvest more in the woods than in the study; what I offer, in fact, is a careful and conscientious record of actual observations and experiences, and is true as it stands written, every word of it. But what has interested me most in Ornithology is the pursuit, the chase, the discovery; that part of it which is akin to hunting, fishing, and wild sports, and which I could carry with me in my eye and ear wherever I went. I cannot answer with much confidence the poet's inquiry,-- "Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?" but I have done what I could to bring home the "river and sky" with the sparrow I heard "singing at dawn on the alder bough." In other words, I have tried to present a live bird,--a bird in the woods or the fields,--with the atmosphere and associations of the place, and not merely a stuffed and labeled specimen. A more specific title for the volume would have suited me better; but not being able to satisfy myself in this direction, I cast about for a word thoroughly in the atmosphere and spirit of the book, which I hope I have found in "Wake-Robin," the common name of the white Trillium, which blooms in all our woods, and which marks the arrival of all the birds. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION TO RIVERSIDE EDITION I. THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS II. IN THE HEMLOCKS III. THE ADIRONDACKS IV. BIRDS'-NESTS V. SPRING AT THE CAPITAL VI. BIRCH BROWSINGS VII. THE BLUEBIRD VIII. THE INVITATION INDEX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS JOHN BURROUGHS Etched by W. H. W. Bicknell, from a daguerreotype PARTRIDGE'S NEST From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason A CABIN IN THE ADIRONDACKS From a photograph by Clifton Johnson AMERICAN OSPREY, OR FISH HAWK (colored) From a drawing by L. A. Fuertes BIRD'S-FOOT VIOLETS From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason BLUEBIRD From a drawing by L. A. Fuertes INTRODUCTION TO RIVERSIDE EDITION