CHARACTER IN FEATHERS. 71 



and their dignified, quiet demeanor, they stand 

 for the true aristocratic spirit. Like all genu- 

 ine aristocrats, they carry an air of distinction, 

 of which no one who approaches them can long 

 remain unconscious. When you go into their 

 haunts they do not appear so much frightened 

 as offended. " Why do you intrude ? " they 

 seem to say ; " these are our woods; " and they 

 bow you out with all ceremony. Their songs 

 are in keeping with this character ; leisurely, 

 unambitious, and brief, but in beauty of voice 

 and in high musical quality excelling all other 

 music of the woods. However, I would not 

 exaggerate, and I have not found even these 

 thrushes perfect. The hermit, who is my fa- 

 vorite of the four, has a habit of slowly raising 

 and depressing his tail when his mind is dis- 

 turbed — a trick of which it is likely he is un- 

 conscious, but which, to say the least, is not a 

 mark of good breeding ; and the Wilson, while 

 every note of his song breathes of spirituality, 

 has nevertheless a most vulgar alarm call, a 

 petulant, nasal, one-syllabled yeork. I do not 

 know anything so grave against the wood 

 thrush or the Swainson ; although when I have 

 fooled the former with decoy whistles, I have 

 found him more inquisitive than seemed alto- 

 gether becoming to a bird of his quality. But 

 character without flaw is hardly to be insisted 



