SOME LABRADOR RIVERS 



of Natural History for the year 1883, the follow- 

 ing by Mr. William Brewster, who paid a flying 

 visit to southern Labrador in 1881, more clearly 

 expresses these thoughts, and well describes 

 the song of the fox sparrow and its settings: 

 " What the Mocking-bird is to the South, 

 the Meadow Lark to the plains of the West, 

 the Robin and Song Sparrow to Massachusetts, 

 and the White-throated Sparrow to northern 

 New England, the Fox Sparrow is to the bleak 

 regions bordering the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 At all hours of the day, in every kind of weather 

 late into the brief summer, its voice rises among 

 the evergreen woods filling the air with quiver- 

 ing, delicious melody, which at length dies 

 softly, mingling with the soughing of the wind in 

 the spruces, or drowned by the muffled roar 

 of the surf beating against neighbouring cliffs. 

 To my ear the prominent characteristic of its 

 voice is richness. It expresses careless joy and 

 exultant masculine vigour, rather than delicate 

 shades of sentiment, and on this account is 

 perhaps of a lower order than the pure, passion- 

 less hymn of the Hermit Thrush ; but it is such 

 a fervent, sensuous and withal perfectly- 

 rounded carol that it affects the ear much as 



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