184 MINOR SONGSTERS. 
criticism to the ee Having said which, I 
am bound to go further still, and to acknowledge 
that on looking back over the first part of this 
paper I feel more than half ashamed of the 
strictures therein passed upon the bluebird and 
the brown thrush. When I heard the former’s 
salutation from a Boston Common elm on the 
morning of the 22d of February last, I said to 
myself that no music, not even the nightingale’s, 
could ever be sweeter. Let him keep on, by all 
means, in his own artless way, paying no heed 
to what I have foolishly written about his short- 
comings. As for the thrasher’s smile-provoking 
gutturals, I recall that even in the symphonies 
of the greatest of masters there are here and 
there quaint bassoon phrases, which have, and 
doubtless were intended to have, a somewhat 
whimsical effect ; and remembering this, I am 
ready to own that I was less wise than I thought 
myself when I found so much fault with the 
thrush’s performance. I have sins enough to 
answer for: may this never be added to them, 
that I set up my taste against that of Beethoven 
and Harporhynchus rufus. 
