Song Birds and Water Fowl 
wherein the sentiment seems all contained in 
an incomparably simple upward slide of about 
a ‘‘minor third,’’ there is nothing more strik- 
ing or familiar than the pewee’s elegy of tears, 
that everywhere delightfully saddens the silence 
of the woods. It is the very acme of simplicity 
and gentle plaintiveness; and, while the grim 
scientist forbids us to call it asong, he must 
be to the last degree obtuse who does not feel 
therein the most pathetic sentiment of sound. 
To the careless listener there seem to be but 
narrow limits to the possible variation of effects 
from all the woodland choir: but, to the re- 
sponsive mind, there is endless diversity in all 
this poetry of tone that so delightfully re-echoes 
and intensifies the changeful moods of Nature ; 
whose endless scenery appeals so deeply to 
man’s heart just because it is the timely and 
delicate expression of many a deep, vague 
thought that never comes to human utterance. 
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