CoiiijrUjliti'd photograph by Xorman McClintoch 



HERMIT THRUSH AND YOUNG 



Tlie hermit thrush is a rare and shy forest bird, living in remote swampy places in the eastern United 

 States. 



"A strain has reached my ears from out the depths of the forest that to me is the finest sound in nature, 

 ■ — the song of the hermit-thrush. ... It is not a proud, gorgeous strain, like the tanager's or the gros- 

 beak's; suggests no passion or emotion, — nothing personal, — but seems to be the voice of that calm, sweet 

 solemnity one attains to in his best moments. ... A few nights ago I ascended a mountain to see the 

 world by moonlight ; and when near the summit the hermit commenced his evening hymn a few rods from 

 me. Listening to this strain on the lone mountain, with the full moon just rounded from the horizon, the 

 pomp of your cities and the pride of your civilization seemed trivial and cheap." — John Burroughs in Wake 

 Robin. 



"Sing on, sing on, you grey-brown bird. 

 Sing from the swamps, the recesses, pour your chant from the bushes, 

 Limitless out of the dusk, out of the cedars and pines. . . . 

 Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe." 



— Walt Whitman in Memories of President Lincoln 



— See Note regarding the photograph, page 280 



220 



