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THE CATBIRD. 



audience," etc. Some lack originality, feeling, are incapable of sustained 

 effort, cannot imitate other birds, etc. But some Catbirds are amojig the 

 most talented singers known. One such I remember, which, overcome by the 

 charms of a May day sunset, mounted the tip of a pasture elm, and poured 

 forth a hymn of praise in which every voice of woodland and field was laid 

 under contribution. Yet all were suffused by the singer's own emotion. Oh, 

 how that voice rang out upon the still evening air! The bird sang with true 

 feeling, an artist in every sense, and the delicacy and accuracy of his phrasing 

 must have silenced a much more captious critic than I. Never at a loss for a 

 note, never pausing to ask himself what he should sing next, he went steadily 

 on, now with a phrase from Robin's song, nnw with the shrill cry of the Red- 

 headed Woodpecker, each softened and refined as his own infallible musical 

 taste dictated ; now and again he interspersed these with bits of his own no 

 less beautiful. The carol of \'ireo, the tender ditties of the Song and Vesper 

 Sparrows, and the more pretentious efforts of Grosbeaks, had all impressed 

 themselves upon this musician's ear, and he repeated them, not slavishly, but 

 with discernment and deep appreciation. As the sun sank lower in the west 

 I left him there, a dull gray bird, with form scarcely outlined against the 

 evening sky, but my soul had taken flight with his — up into that blest abode 

 where all Nature's voices are blended into one, and all music is praise. 



Taken near Stehekin, 



Photo by the Author. 



A H.AUNT OF THE CATBIRD. 



