Polly Houghton comes along

April 8.  

Surveying Kettell farm. 

Could I have heard Fringilla socialis along the street this morning? Or may it have been the hyemalis?

Polly Houghton comes along and says, half believing it, of my compass, “This is what regulates the moon and stars.”

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 8, 1858


Could I have heard Fringilla socialis along the street this morning? See April 9, 1853 ("The chipping sparrow, with its ashy-white breast and white streak over eye and undivided chestnut crown, holds up its head and pours forth its che che che che che che."); April 12, 1858 ("Hear the huckleberry-bird and, I think, the Fringilla socialis.”); April 27, 1852 (“Heard also a chipping sparrow (F. socialis)”); April 27, 1857 ("I hear the prolonged che che che che che, etc., of the chip-bird.").  See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Chipping Sparrow (Fringilla socialis ).

“This is what regulates the moon and stars.” See April 30, 1856 (“The Italian with his hand-organ stops to stare at my compass, just as the boys are curious about his machine.”)