184 MINOR SONGSTERS. 



criticism to the winds. Having said which, I 

 am bound to go further still, and to acknowledge 

 that on looking back over the first part of this 

 paper I feel more than half ashamed of the 

 strictures therein passed upon the bluebird and 

 the brown thrush. When I heard the former's 

 salutation from a Boston Common elm on the 

 morning of the 22d of February last, I said to 

 myself that no music, not even the nightingale's, 

 could ever be sweeter. Let him keep on, by all 

 means, in his own artless way, paying no heed 

 to what I have foolishly written about his short- 

 comings. As for the thrasher's smile-provoking 

 gutturals, I recall that even in the symphonies 

 of the greatest of masters there are here and 

 there quaint bassoon phrases, which have, and 

 doubtless were intended to have, a somewhat 

 whimsical effect ; and remembering this, I am 

 ready to own that I was less wise than I thought 

 myself when I found so much fault with the 

 thrush's performance. I have sins enough to 

 answer for : may this never be added to them, 

 that I set up my taste against that of Beethoven 

 and Harporhynchus rufus. 



