48 WAKE-ROBIN 



take up the strain from almost the identical perch 

 in less than ten minutes afterward. Later in the 

 day, when I had penetrated the heart of the old 

 Barkpeeling, I came suddenly upon one singing from 

 a low stump, and for a wonder he did not seem 

 alarmed, but lifted up his divine voice as if his 

 privacy was undisturbed. I open his beak and find 

 the inside yellow as gold. I was prepared to find 

 it inlaid with pearls and diamonds, or to see an 

 angel issue from it. 



He is not much in the books. Indeed, I am 

 acquainted with scarcely any writer on ornithology 

 whose head is not muddled on the subject of our 

 three prevailing song- thrushes, confounding either 

 their figures or their songs. A writer in the "At- 

 lantic " ^ gravely tells us the wood thrush is some- 

 times called the hermit, and then, after describing 

 the song of the hermit with great beauty and cor- 

 rectness, coolly ascribes it to the veery ! The new 

 Cyclopaedia, fresh from the study of Audubon, says 

 the hermit's song consists of a single plaintive note, 

 and that the veery 's resembles that of the wood 

 thrush ! The hermit thrush may be easily identified 

 by his color; his back being a clear olive- brown be- 

 coming rufous on his rump and tail. A quill from 

 his wing placed beside one from his tail on a dark 

 ground presents quite a marked contrast. 



I walk along the old road, and note the tracks in 

 the thin layer of mud. When do these creatures 

 travel here? I have never yet chanced to meet 



1 For December, 1858. 



