168 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



not mistaken here, I will give also the testimony of 

 Mr. Cheney, who renders the song thus : 



He also sustains my theory of the quality of the 

 notes, as he says they are " something like the sweep 

 of an accordion through the air." This exactly ex- 

 presses the peculiar harmonic crescendo and diminu- 

 endo of the weird notes. 



There is another thrush whose song I am not 

 quite so well acquainted with, but one which may 

 frequently be heard singing in the lonely red spruce 

 forests of the White Mountain region in late spring 

 or early summer ; this is called Swainson's thrush, or 

 the olive-backed thrush (Turdus ustulatus Swain- 

 sonii). I believe this bird sings only at nesting time ; 

 the hermit thrush sings all summer. But in June I 

 have often heard both birds singing at the same time. 

 Nothing is more subtile and charming to one's sense 

 of musical harmony than this exquisite, wild, silvery 

 music of the Northern woods. It is hardly possible 

 for one to pass over the highways at the feet of the 

 great wooded mountains of northern New York, 

 Vermont, and New Hampshire without hearing (at 

 least in May or June), every one of these thrushes 



