168 BIRDS OF THE PASTURE AND FOREST. 



At this hour, during a period of nine or ten weeks, he 

 charms the evening- witli his strains, and often prolongs 

 them in still weather until after dusk, and whispers them 

 sweetly into the ear of Night. 



His song, though loud for so small a bird, is modulated 

 with such a sweet and flowing cadence that it comes to 

 the ear like a strain from some elfin source. It seems 

 at first to be wanting in variety. I formerly thought 

 so, while at the same time I was puzzled to account foj- 

 its enchanting effect on the mind of the listener. The 

 same remark may be applied to the human voice. I 

 suppose I am not the only person who can remember 

 certain female voices, which, with limited compass and 

 execution, do, by a peculiar native modulation, combined 

 with great simplicity, affect the . listener with emotions 

 such as no prima donna could produce. Having never 

 heard the Nightingale, I can draw no comparison between 

 that bird and the Veery. But neither the Mocking-Bird, 

 nor any other bird in our woods, utters a single strain to 

 be compared in sweetness and expression to the five bars 

 of tlie simple song of the Yeery. 



Were we to attempt to perform these notes upon a 

 musical instrument, we should fail from the difficulty of 

 imitating their peculiar trilling and the liquid ventrilo- 

 quial sounds at the end of each strain. Tlie whole is 

 warbled in such a manner as to produce on the ear the 

 effect of harmony, and to combine in a remarkable. degree 

 the two different qualities of V)rilliancy and plaintiveness. 

 The former effect is produced by the first notes of eacli 

 strain, wliich are sudden and on a high key ; tlie second 

 by the graceful chromatic slide to the termination, which 

 is inimitable and exceedingly solemn. I have sometimes 

 imagined that a part of the delightful influence of tliese 

 notes might be ascribed to the cloistered recesses in which 

 they are delivered. But I have occasionally heard them 



