A LABRADOR SPRING 



the rare occasions when we did not lose each 

 other. 



Perhaps the most frequent and certainly the 

 most prominent bird song heard near this river 

 was that of the fox sparrow. Its wonderfully 

 clear flute- like notes came forth from the 

 spruces at all times of day, delivered with a 

 great precision, and with a mastery of tech- 

 nique that can scarcely be rivalled in the bird 

 chorus. One who has heard only the imperfect 

 songs of this bird in its brief passage through the 

 eastern States, and before the ecstasy of its 

 passion has been attained, can not realize the 

 intensity and scope of its love utterances in its 

 breeding home. It was a song that one could 

 not but admire for the beauty and richness of 

 its performance, but at the same time one felt 

 that it lacked the charm, the soul, the spirit- 

 uality or whatever one may call it that applies 

 so forcibly to the divine song of the hermit 

 thrush or the simpler melody of the white- 

 throated sparrow, songs of which one never 

 tires. 



Sometimes the brightest gems are buried in 

 obscure and unexpected places. In one of the 

 scientific publications of the Boston Society 



246 



