JUNE IN FRAN CON I A. 19 



music. Four of our five summer represent- 

 atives of the genus Turdus took turns, as 

 it were, in the serenade. The veeries 

 Wilson's thrushes greeted me before I 

 stepped off the piazza. As I neared the 

 Profile House farm, the hermits were in tune 

 on either hand. The moment the road en- 

 tered the ancient forest, the olive - backs 

 began to make themselves heard, and half- 

 way up the mountain path the gray-cheeks 

 took up the strain and carried it on to its 

 heavenly conclusion. A noble processional! 

 Even a lame man might have climbed to 

 such music. If the wood thrush had been 

 here, the chorus would have been complete, 

 a chorus not to be excelled, according 

 to my untraveled belief, in any quarter of 

 the world. 



To-day, however, my first thoughts were 

 not of birds, but of the mountain. The 

 weather was all that could be asked, the 

 temperature perfect, and the atmosphere so 

 transparent as to be of itself a kind of lens ; 

 so that in the evening, when I rejoined my 

 companions at the hotel, I found to my as- 

 tonishment that I had been plainly visible 

 while at the summit, the beholders having 



