AN UNCANNY SOUND. 35 



The call of the wood peewee 5 is the most 

 plaintive note of our native woods these mid- 

 summer days. Dressed in a suit of olive brown 

 the little bird flits from perch to perch uttering 

 his pee-wee-ee at intervals of twenty seconds. 

 His eye is ever open for insect delicacies or for 

 a shadow from the swift moving wings of a 

 sparrow hawk. What does his pee-wee-e-e-e 

 denote? Is it a signal of love to a listening 

 mate, or is it the plaintive call of a lonesome 

 bird spirit a monologue of despair? 



The note of the wood peewee always causes 

 a feeling of loneliness in my soul a feeling 

 of a coming shadow of something dark and un- 

 canny a feeling closely akin to that engendered 

 when I enter the depths of a tamarack swamp ; 

 or when I see the leaves of autumn falling about 

 me hear the shrill cry of the katydid and 

 dream of the near approaching winter. For I 

 am a human who delights in spring and sum- 

 mer, in sunshine and green verdure. Then only 

 am I an optimist. In autumn and winter, es- 

 pecially on cloudy days, or in the shadow of a 



* Oontopus virens (L.). 



