282 A MONgH 'S MUSIC. 
I caught the familiar and characteristic notes 
— a brief ascending spiral — I was almost ready 
to believe myself in some primeval New Hamp- 
shire forest ; an illusion not a little aided by the 
frequent lisping of black-poll warblers, who 
chanced just then to be remarkably abundant. 
It was on the same day, and within a short dis- 
tance of the same spot, that the Alice thrushes, 
or gray-cheeks, were in song. ‘Their music was 
repeated a good many times, but unhappily it 
ceased whenever I tried to get near the birds. 
Then, as always, it put me in mind of the 
veery’s effort, notwithstanding a certain part 
of the strain was quite out of the veery’s man- 
ner, and the whole was pitched in decidedly 
too high a key. It seemed, also, as if what I 
heard could not be the complete song; but I 
had been troubled with the same feeling on 
previous occasions, and a friend whose oppor- 
tunities have been better than mine reports a 
similiar experience ; so that it is perhaps not 
uncharitable to conclude that the song, even at 
its best, is more or less broken and amorphous. 
In their Northern homes these gray-cheeks 
are excessively wild and unapproachable ; but 
while traveling they are little if at all worse ~ 
than their congeners in this respect, — taking 
short flights when disturbed, and often doing 
nothing more than to hop upon some low perch 
to reconnoitre the intruder. 
