Reflections from an owl's feather

January 17.

Sunday. P. M. — To Conantum. 

The common birch fungus, which is horizontal and turned downward, splits the bark as it pushes out very simply, thus:

I see a large downy owl's feather adhering to a sweet-fern twig, looking like the down of a plant blowing in the wind. This is near where I have found them before, on Conantum, above first Cliff. They would be very ornamental to a bonnet, so soft and fine with their reflections that the eye hardly rests on the down.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, January 17, 1858

The common birch fungus, which is horizontal and turned downward, splits the bark as it pushes out very simply. See  January 26, 1858 ("On the side-hill at the swamp, I see how the common horizontal birch fungus is formed . . .")

Reflections from an owl's feather. See November 2, 1857 ("You must be in an abstract mood to see reflections however distinct"); August 23, 1852 ("The perception of surfaces will always have the effect of miracle.")