AN OWVS HEAD HOLIDAY. 259 



there than anywhere else ; bat they were often 

 to be heard by the lake-side, and in oar apple 

 orchard, and once at least one of them sang at 

 some length from a birch-tree within a few feet 

 of the piazza, between it and the bowling alley. 

 As far as I have ever been able to discover, the 

 hermit, for all his name and conseqaent repata- 

 tion, is less timorous and more approachable 

 than any other New England representative of 

 his "sab-genas." 



On this trip I settled once more a question 

 which I had already settled several times, — the 

 question, namely, whether the wood thrush or 

 the hermit is the better singer. This time m}^ 

 decision was in favor of the former. How the 

 case would have turned had the conditions been 

 reversed, had there been a hundred of the wood 

 thrushes for one of the hermits, of course I can- 

 not tell. So true is a certain old Latin proverb, 

 that in matters of this sort it is impossible for 

 a man to agree even with himself for any long 

 time together. 



The conspicuous birds, noticed by everybody, 

 were a family of hawks. The visitor might 

 have no appreciation of music ; he might go up 

 the mountain and down again without minding 

 the thrushes or the wrens, — for there is nothing 

 about the human ear more wonderful than its 

 ability not to hear ; but these hawks passed a 



