TWO FRAGMENTS. 



In the paper on " Songs out of Season " I have 

 spoken of the autumn carols of the fox sparrows. 

 Since that time I have learned that these were 

 merely fragments of song, though quite suggestive 

 of the higher style of music they are capable of 

 producing in the lyrical season. On their return 

 in the spring from their pilgrimage to the south 

 they make the woods echo with their stirring min- 

 strelsy. One of them begins his song on a sapling ; 

 soon another not far off responds, then another 

 more remote takes up the refrain ; and so the 

 music swells until the woods ring with the gleeful 

 antiphonal chorus. 



There is something peculiarly riant and pleasing 

 about the lyrical performances of the fox sparrows. 

 Perhaps a trained musician would contend that our 

 bird's voice needs cultivation and that his execu- 

 tion lacks skill and smoothness; but for some of 

 us this very artlessness constitutes the principal 

 charm of his song. At a distance one often catches 



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