18 JUNE IN FRANCONIA. 
found them. The bird was just over the 
high, close, inhospitable fence, on the top 
of which I rested my chin and watched and 
listened. He sat with his back toward me, 
in full view, on a level with my eye, and 
sang and sang and sang, in a most deli- 
ciously soft, far-away voice, keeping his 
wings all the while a little raised and quiv- 
ering, as in a kind of musical ecstasy. It 
does seem a thing to be regretted — yes, a 
thing to be ashamed of — that a bird so beau- 
tiful, so musical, so romantic in its choice 
of a dwelling-place, and withal so charac- 
teristic of New England should be known, 
at a liberal estimate, to not more than one 
or two hundred New Englanders! But if 
a bird wishes general recognition, he should 
do as the robin does, and the bluebird, and 
the oriole, —dress like none of his neigh- 
bors, and show himself freely in the vicinity 
of men’s houses. Howean one expect to be 
famous unless he takes a little pains to keep 
himself before the public? 
From the time I left my hotel until I was 
fairly above the dwarf spruces below the 
summit of Lafayette, I was never for many 
minutes together out of the hearing of thrush 
