280 A MONTH'S MUSIC. 



thrush should hold himself bound to appear at 

 a given point on a fixed date. How can we 

 know the multitude of reasons, any one of which 

 may detain him for twenty-four hours, or even 

 for a week ? It is enough for us to be assured, 

 in general, that the first ten days of the month 

 will bring this master of the choir. The pres- 

 ent season he arrived on the 6th the veery 

 with him ; last year he was absent until the 

 8th ; while on the two years preceding he as- 

 sisted at the observance of May-day. 



All in all, I must esteem this thrush our great- 

 est singer ; although the hermit might dispute 

 the palm, perhaps, but that he is merely a semi- 

 annual visitor in most parts of Massachusetts. 

 If perfection be held to consist in the absence 

 of flaw, the hermit's is unquestionably the more 

 nearly perfect song of the two. Whatever he 

 attempts is done beyond criticism ; but his range 

 and variety are far less than his rival's, and, for 

 my part, I can forgive the latter if now and then 

 he reaches after a note lying a little beyond his 

 best voice, and withal is too commonly wanting 

 in that absolute simplicity and ease which lend 

 such an ineffable charm to the performance of 

 the hermit and the veery. Shakespeare is not a 

 faultless poet, but in the existing state of public 

 opinion it will hardly do to set Gray above him. 



In the course of the month about which I am 



