IN THE HEMLOCKS. 67 



to be singing at the same time in the same 

 locality, rivalling each other, like the wood- 

 thrush or the veery. Shooting one from a 

 tree, I have observed another take up the 

 strain from almost the identical perch, in 

 less than ten minutes afterward. Later in 

 the day, when I had penetrated the heart of 

 the old " Bark-peeling," I came suddenly 

 upon one singing from a low stump, and 

 for a wonder he did not seem alarmed, but 

 lifted up his divine voice as if his privacy 

 was undisturbed. I open his beak, and find 

 the inside yellow as gold. I was prepared 

 to find it inlaid with pearls and diamonds, 

 or to see an angel issue from it. 



He is not much in the books. Indeed, I 

 am acquainted with scarcely any writer on 

 ornithology whose head is not muddled on 

 the subject of our three prevailing song- 

 thrushes, confounding either their figures or 

 their songs. A writer in the " Atlantic " J 

 gravely tells us the wood-thrush is sometimes 

 called the hermit, and then, after describing 

 the song of the hermit with great beauty 

 and correctness, coolly ascribes it to the 

 veery ! The new Cyclopaedia, fresh from 

 the study of Audubon, says the hermit's 

 i For December, 1858 



