Water Fowl 
in the best of songsters, accessories are needful 
to enhance the charm—as, for example, in the 
skylark, its ecstasy of motion ; in the thrush, its 
noble posture of repose. Besides, the singing 
season only lasts about a quarter of the year ; 
and yet how much delight the ornithologist 
derives, from the end of summer till the follow- 
ing spring, from the various characteristics of 
the perfectly silent song birds, such as the win- 
ter wren, the kinglet, snow-bird, crossbill, 
white-throat, and goldfinch. How much pleas- 
ure, too, one finds in the many migrant species 
of this same class, that are with us a brief season 
in the spring, but whose song is only to be 
heard in their more northern homes. What an 
amount of satisfaction is afforded even by the per- 
fectly silent hermit thrush, whose exquisite form, 
refinement of demeanor, and inimitably rich 
modesty of plumage, are eclipsed only by the 
very finest song. Moreover, in studying the 
curious ways of all the woodpeckers, quite 
likely it never occurs to the observer that his 
pleasure is lessened because they never sing at 
all; nor does one study with less interest, be- 
cause they are so mute or unmusical at all times, 
the cedar bird, the humming-bird, the swallow, 
the flycatcher, and all of the birds of prey. 
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