WAKE-ROBIN

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN BURROUGHS

WITH PORTRAITS AND MANY ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME I

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

This is mainly a book about the Birds, or more properly an invitationto the study of Ornithology, and the purpose of the author will becarried out in proportion as it awakens and stimulates the interest ofthe reader in this branch of Natural History.

Though written less in the spirit of exact science than with thefreedom of love and old acquaintance, yet I have in no instance takenliberties with facts, or allowed my imagination to influence me to theextent of giving a false impression or a wrong coloring. I have reapedmy harvest more in the woods than in the study; what I offer, in fact,is a careful and conscientious record of actual observations andexperiences, and is true as it stands written, every word of it. Butwhat has interested me most in Ornithology is the pursuit, the chase,the discovery; that part of it which is akin to hunting, fishing, andwild sports, and which I could carry with me in my eye and earwherever I went.

I cannot answer with much confidence the poet's inquiry,—

"Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?"

but I have done what I could to bring home the "river and sky" withthe sparrow I heard "singing at dawn on the alder bough." In otherwords, I have tried to present a live bird,—a bird in the woods orthe fields,—with the atmosphere and associations of the place, andnot merely a stuffed and labeled specimen.

A more specific title for the volume would have suited me better; butnot being able to satisfy myself in this direction, I cast about for aword thoroughly in the atmosphere and spirit of the book, which I hopeI have found in "Wake-Robin," the common name of the white Trillium,which blooms in all our woods, and which marks the arrival of all thebirds.

CONTENTS