282 A MONTH'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. 



