BIRDS OF THE PEAK 131 



certain times, or on certain rare days, take possession 

 of and hold us to the exclusion of all others. A similar 

 experience is familiar to the lovers of the sublime and 

 beautiful in nature and art, in music and poetry. 

 So (to compare small things with great) we naturalists 

 have our buzzard or raven or wild-geese days, and, 

 better still, our days with this or that fascinating 

 melodist — blackcap or blackbird, or linnet, or wheat- 

 ear, or nightingale. And when the day is finished and 

 the mood over it is not wholly over even then; we 

 are like the poet who has listened to voices even more 

 unearthly than birds': 



I thenceforward and long after 

 Listen to their harp-like laughter, 

 And carry in my heart for days 

 Peace that hallows rudest ways. 



Moreover I was here on a special visit to this species ; 

 he was more in my mind than the golden plover or 

 any other. I came to be more intimate with him — to 

 have my ring-ouzel day and mood. 



