Red-top

June 26

The slight reddish-topped grass now gives a reddish tinge to some fields.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 26, 1851

See June 19, 1859 ("Is that red-top, nearly out on railroad bank?");  July 6, 1851 ("The red-topped grass is in its prime, tingeing the fields with red."); July 13, 1860 ("I especially notice some very red fields where the red-top grass grows luxuriantly and is now in full bloom, - a red purple, passing into brown. First we had the June grass reddish-brown, and the sorrel red, of June; now the red-top red of July."); July 15, 1860 ("Looking down on a field of red-top now in full bloom, at 2.30 P.M. in a blazing sun I am surprised to see a very distinct white vapor like a low cloud drifting along close over the moist coolness of that dense grass-field. Field after field, densely packed like the squares of a checker-board, all through and about the villages, paint the earth")

June 26. Thursday . The slight reddish-topped grass (red - top?) now gives a reddish tinge to some fields, like sorrel. 

Visited a menagerie this afternoon. 

I am always surprised to see the same spots and stripes on wild beasts from Africa and Asia and also from South America  — on the Brazilian tiger and the African leopard, - and their general similarity. All these wild animals lions, tigers chetas, leopards , etc. - have one hue, - tawny and commonly spotted or striped , what you may call pard-color, a color and marking which I had not associated with America. These are wild beasts. 

What constitutes the difference between a wild beast and a tame one? How much more human the one than the other! Growling, scratching, roaring, with whatever beauty and gracefulness, still untamable, this royal Bengal tiger or this leopard. They have the character and the importance of another order of men. The majestic lion, the king of beasts, he must retain his title. 

I was struck by the gem-like, changeable, greenish reflections from the eyes of the grizzly bear, so glassy that you never saw the surface of the eye. They [were] quite demonic. Its claws, though extremely large and long, look weak and made for digging or pawing the earth and leaves. 

It is unavoidable, the idea of trans-migration; not merely a fancy of the poets, but an instinct of the race.