164 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



sinking, which Mr. Burroughs refers to in Wake, 

 Robin. 



But I shall endeavor to give a more tangible ac- 

 count of this bird's extraordinary voice. His notes 

 are silvery, flute whistles, generally delivered in trip- 

 lets. His range is quite an octave or more, and 

 frequently he rises from a particular note to the 

 octave higher, with surprising precision and all the 

 eclat of an accomplished musician. I am riot alone in 

 my observation of these facts, as Mr. Cheney de- 

 scribee the hermit's song thus : " After striking his 

 first low, long, and firm note, he bounds upward by 

 thirds, fourths, and fifths, and sometimes a whole 

 octave, gurgling out his triplets with every upward 

 movement " which is exactly true. How remark- 

 ably pronounced these thirds and fifths are may be 

 seen by the following : 



(This passage is usually suc- 

 ceeded by that marked " ca- 

 denza.") But this is not all 

 the hermit can do ; his gym- 

 nastic exercises in the high treble are astonishing. 

 All at once he starts with a deliberate, prolonged 

 high note, springs suddenly to the next whole note 



