142 SCRAPING ACQUAINTANCE. 



was entirely unacquainted with it, and though 

 all our books affirmed that the Alice thrush 

 was not a summer resident of any part of the 

 United States. 



It is worth remarking, also, in this connec- 

 tion, that the HylocicJiloi differ more decidedly 

 in their notes of alarm than in their songs. 

 The wood thrush's call is extremely sharp and 

 brusque, and is usually fired off in a little vol- 

 ley ; that of the Wilson is a sort of whine, or 

 snarl, in distressing contrast with his song ; the 

 hermit's is a quick, sotto voce^ sometimes almost 

 inaudible chuck ; the Swainson's is a mellow 

 whistle ; while that of the Alice is something 

 between the Swainson's and the Wilson's, — 

 not so gentle and refined as the former, nor so 

 outrageously vulgar as the latter. 



In what is here said about discriminating 

 species it must be understood that I am not 

 speaking of such identification as will answer 

 a strictly scientific purpose. For that the bird 

 must be shot. To the maiden 



"whose light blue eyes 

 Are tender over drowning flies," 



this decree will no doubt sound cruel. Men who 

 pass laws of that sort may call themselves orni- 

 thologists, if they will ; for her part she calls them 

 butchers. We might turn on our fair accuser, it 

 is true, with some inquiry about the two or three 



