AN OWL'S HEAD HOLIDAY. 259 



there than anywhere else ; but they were often 

 to be heard by the lake-side, and in our apple 

 orchard, and once at least one of them sang at 

 some length from a birch-tree within a few feet 

 of the piazza, between it and the bowling alley. 

 As far as I have ever been able to discover, the 

 hermit, for all his name and consequent reputa- 

 tion, is less timorous and more approachable 

 than any other New England representative of 

 his " sub-genus." 



On this trip I settled once more a question 

 which I had already settled several times, the 

 question, namely, whether the wood thrush or 

 the hermit is the better singer. This time my 

 decision was in favor of the former. How the 

 case would have turned had the conditions been 

 reversed, had there been a hundred of the wood 

 thrushes for one of the hermits, of course I can- 

 not tell. So true is a certain old Latin proverb, 

 that in matters of this sort it is impossible for 

 a man to agree even with himself for any long 

 time together. 



The conspicuous birds, noticed by everybody, 

 were a family of hawks. The visitor might 

 have no appreciation of music ; he might go up 

 the mountain and down again without minding 

 the thrushes or the wrens, for there is nothing 

 about the human ear more wonderful than its 

 ability not to hear ; but these hawks passed a 



