There is a damp, earthy, mildewy scent to the ground in wood-paths.

July 16.

A thick fog began last night and lasts till late this morning; first of the kind, methinks. 

Many yellow butterflies and red on clover and yarrow. 

Is it the yellow-winged or Savannah sparrow with yellow alternating with dark streaks on throat, as well as yellow over eye, reddish flesh-colored legs, and two light bars on wings? 

Solidago nemoralis yesterday. 

Woodcock by side of Walden in woods. 

Methinks there were most devil's-needles a month ago. 

Aralia nudicaulis berries well ripe. 

The Polygala sanguinea heads in the grass look like sugar-plums.

After the late rains and last night's fog, it is somewhat dog-dayish, and there is a damp, earthy, mildewy scent to the ground in wood-paths.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 16, 1854

Many yellow butterflies and red on clover and yarrow. See July 16, 1851 ("I see the yellow butterflies now gathered in fleets in the road, and on the flowers of the milkweed. . .; also the smaller butterfly, with reddish wings, and a larger, black or steel-blue, with wings spotted red on edge, and one of equal size, reddish copper-colored."); July 14, 1852 ("See to-day for the first time this season fleets of yellow butterflies in compact assembly in the road”); July 19, 1856 ("Fleets of yellow butterflies on road.");  July 22, 1853 ("Yellow butterflies in the road");July 26, 1854 ("Today I see in various parts of the town the yellow butterflies in fleets in the road, on bare damp sand, twenty or more collected within a diameter of five or six inches in many places.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Yellow Butterflies; A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Small Red Butterfly


Is it the yellow-winged or Savannah sparrow.? See June 10, 1854 ("What is the seringo? I see some with clear, dirty-yellow breasts, but others, as to-day, with white breasts, dark-streaked. Both have the yellow over eye and the white line on crown, and agree in size, but I have seen only one with distinct yellow on wings. . . . Are they both yellow-winged sparrows? or is the white-breasted with streaks the Savannah sparrow?"); June 12, 1854 ("Do I not see two birds with the seringo note, — the Savannah (?) sparrow, larger with not so bright a yellow over eye, none on wing, and white breast, and beneath former streaked with dark and perhaps a dark spot, and the smaller yellow-winged, with spot on wing also and ochreous breast and throat? ");  June 26, 1856 ("According to Audubon’s and Wilson’s plates, the Fringilla passerina has for the most part clear yellowish-white breast (vide May 28th), but the Savannah sparrow no conspicuous yellow on shoulder, a yellow brow, and white crown line.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Savannah Sparrow (Fringilla savanna)

Methinks there were most devil's-needles a month ago. See  June 19, 1860 ("The devil's-needles now abound in wood-paths and about the Ripple Lakes."); June 23, 1853 ("Devil's-needles of various kinds abundant, . . .thousands of devil's-needles of all sizes hovering over the surface of this shallow pond in the woods,. "); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Devil's-needle