Tuesday, June 10, 2014

The meadows now begin to be yellow.



June 10.

Saturday. P.M. — To Conantum on foot.

The bay-wing sparrow apparently is not my seringo, after all. 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. Both the last, i. e. except only the bay-wing, utter the seringo note. Are they both yellow-winged sparrows? or is the white-breasted with streaks the Savannah sparrow?



The meadows now begin to be yellow with senecio. 

Side-saddle generally out; petals hang down. It is a conspicuous flower. 

The fragrance of the arethusa is like that of the lady's-slipper, or pleasanter. 

The Viburnum lentago is just out of bloom now that the V. nudum is fairly begun.

See probably a crow's nest high in a white pine, two crows with ragged wings circling high over it and me, not noisy.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 10, 1854



What is the seringo? See  June 26, 1856 ("[S]aw, apparently, the F. Savanna near their nests (my seringo note), restlessly flitting about me from rock to rock within a rod.") and note to December 7, 1858 ("Dr. Bryant calls my seringo (i. e. the faint-noted bird) Savannah sparrow.”). See also Guide to Thoreau’s Birds ("Thoreau frequently called the Savannah Sparrow Passerculus sandwichensis the seringo or seringo-bird, but he also applied the name to other small birds.")


Yellow-winged sparrows or white-breasted with streaks the Savannah sparrow?
See 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 ? The first sings che che rar, che ra- a-a-a-a-ar.");  July 16, 1854 ("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?“)” and note to June 26, 1856 ("Audubon says that the eggs of the Savannah sparrow “are of a pale bluish color, softly mottled with purplish brown,” and those of the yellow-winged sparrow are “of a dingy white, sprinkled with brown spots.”")


The meadows now begin to be yellow with senecio. See May 23, 1853 ("I am surprised by the dark orange-yellow of the senecio. . . .this broad distinction between the buttercup and the senecio, as the seasons revolve toward July. Every new flower that opens, no doubt, expresses a new mood of the human mind. “) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Golden Senecio

A crow’s nest high in a white pine. See May 11, 1855 ("It is most impressive when, looking for their nests, you first detect the presence of the bird by its shadow.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the American Crow

June 10. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, June 10
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."

  ~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx ©  2009-2021

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