THE CATBIRD. 321 



noiinced favorably upon it, and it is allowable now to admit that \\'histler was 

 a great artist — that is, a great discoverer and revealer of Nature. 



Xature has painted upon our eastern hills a symphony in gray greens, a 

 can\-as of artemisia, simple, ample, insistent. And still the people stand be- 

 fore it hesitating — it is so common — is it considered beautiful, pray? Well, 

 at least a bird thinks so, a bird whose whole life has been spent in the sage. 

 Listen! The hour is sunrise. As we face the east, heavy shadows still huddle 

 about us and blend with the ill-defined realities. The stretching sage-tops 

 tremble with oblation before the expectant sun. The pale dews are taking 

 counsel for flight, but the opalescent haze, pregnant with sunfire, yet tender 

 with cool greens and subtle azures, hovers over the altar waiting the con- 

 comitance of the morning hymn before ascent. Suddenly, from a distant 

 sage-bush bursts a geyser of song, a torrent of tuneful waters, gushing, as it 

 would seem, from the bowels of the wilderness in an ecstacy of greeting and 

 gratitude and praise. It is from the throat of the Sage Thrasher, poet of the 

 bitter weed, that the tumult comes. Himself but a gray shadow, scarce visible 

 in the early light, he pours out his soul and the soul of the sage in a rhapsody 

 of holy joy. Impetuous, impassioned, compelling, rises this matchless music 

 of the desert. To the silence of the gray-green canvas, beautiful but incom- 

 plete, has come the throb and thrill of life, — life brimful, delirious, exultant. 

 The freshness and the gladness of it touch the soul as with a magic. The 

 heart of the listener glows, his veins tingle, his face beams. He cannot wait 

 to analyze. He must dance and shout for joy. The wine of the wilderness 

 is henceforth in his \-eins, and drunk with ecstacy he reels across the en- 

 chanted scene forever more. 



And all this inspiration the bird draws from common sage and the rising 

 of the common sun. How does he do it? I do not know. Ask Homer, 

 Milton, Keats. 



No. 124. 



CATBIRD. 



.•\. O. U. No. 704. Diimetella carolinensis (Linn.). 



Description. — Adult: Slate-color, lightening almost imperceptibly below: 

 black on top of head and on tail ; under tail-coverts chestnut, sometimes spotted 

 with slaty; bill and feet black. Length 8.00-9.35 (203.2-237.5): wing 3.59 

 (91.2): tail 3.65 (02.7): bill .62 (15.8). 



Recognition Marks. — Chewink size: almost uniform slaty coloration with 

 thicket-haunting habits distinctive; lithe and slender as compared with Water 

 Ouzel. 



