While abreast of New England, and I don’t know how many miles at sea, as I turned in my deck promenade, I distinctly scented the land, a subtle, delicious odor of farms and homesteads, warm and human, that floated on the wild sea air, a promise and a token.  The broad red line that had been slowly creeping across our chart for so many weary days, indicating the path of the ship, had now completely bridged the chasm, and had got a good purchase down under the southern coast of New England; and according to the reckoning we ought to have made Sandy Hook that night; but though the position of the vessel was no doubt theoretically all right, yet practically she proved to be much farther out at sea, for all that afternoon and night she held steadily on her course, and not till next morning did the coast of Long Island, like a thin, broken cloud just defined on the horizon, come into view.  But before many hours we had passed the Hook, and were moving slowly up the bay in the midday splendor of the powerful and dazzling light of the New World sun.  And how good things looked to me after even so brief an absence!—­the brilliancy, the roominess, the deep transparent blue of the sky, the clear, sharp outlines, the metropolitan splendor of New York, and especially of Broadway; and as I walked up that great thoroughfare, and noted the familiar physiognomy and the native nonchalance and independence, I experienced the delight that only the returned traveler can feel,—­the instant preference of one’s own country and countrymen over all the rest of the world.

INDEX

Blackbird, crow, or purple grackle (Quiscalus quiscula). 
Blackbird, European. 
Bluebird (Sialia sialis). 
Bobolink (Dodichonyx oryzivorus). 
Buzzard, or turkey vulture (Cathartes aura).

Cardinal.  See Grosbeak, cardinal. 
Cedar-bird, or cedar waxwing (Ampelis cedrorum). 
Chickadee (Parus atricapillus). 
Creeper, brown (Certhia familiaris americana). 
Crow, American (Corvus brachyrhynchos). 
Crow, carrion. 
Crow, fish (Corvus ossifragus). 
Cuckoo.

Finch, purple (Carpodacus purpureus). 
Flicker.  See High-hole. 
Fox, Arctic. 
Fox, cross. 
Fox, gray. 
Fox, prairie. 
Fox, red. 
Fox, silver-gray or black.

Goldfinch, American (Astragalinus tristis). 
Goose, domestic. 
Goose, wild or Canada (Branta canadensis). 
Grackle, purple.  See Blackbird, crow. 
Grosbeak, cardinal, or cardinal, (Cardinalis cardinalis). 
Grouse, ruffed.  See Partridge. 
Gulls.

Hairbird, or chipping sparrow (Spizella socialis). 
Hare, northern.

High-hole, or flicker (Colaptes auratus luteus).

Jackdaw. 
Jay, blue (Cyanocitta cristata). 
Jay, European. 
Junco, slate-colored.  See Snowbird. 
Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus). 
Kinglets.

Lark.  See Skylark. 
Liver-leaf.  See Hepatica.