282 A MONTH'S MUSIC. 



I caught the familiar and characteristic notes 

 — a brief ascending spiral — I was almost ready 

 to believe myself in some primeval New Hamp- 

 shire forest ; an illusion not a little aided by the 

 frequent lisping of black-poll warblers, who 

 chanced just then to be remarkably abundant. 



It was on the same day, and within a short dis- 

 tance of the same spot, that the Alice thrushes, 

 or gray-cheeks, were in song. Their music was 

 repeated a good many times, but unhappily it 

 ceased whenever I tried to get near the birds. 

 Then, as always, it put me in mind of the 

 veery's effort, notwithstanding a certain part 

 of the strain was quite out of the veery's man- 

 ner, and the whole was pitched in decidedly 

 too high a key. It seemed, also, as if what I 

 heard could not be the complete song ; but I 

 had been troubled with the same feeling on 

 previous occasions, and a friend whose oppor- 

 tunities have been better than mine reports a 

 similiar experience ; so that it is perhaps not 

 uncharitable to conclude that the song, even at 

 its best, is more or less broken and amorphous. 



In their Northern homes these gray-cheeks 

 are excessively wild and unapproachable ; but 

 while traveling they are little if at all worse 

 than their congeners in this respect, — taking 

 short flights when disturbed, and often doing 

 nothing more than to hop upon some low perch 

 to reconnoitre the intruder. 



