282 THE INVITATION. 



woods where this bird abounds, on some June 

 afternoon or evening. I hear it very fre- 

 quently after sundown, when the ecstatic 

 singer can hardly be distinguished against 

 the sky. I know of a high, bald-top moun- 

 tain, where I have sat late in the afternoon, 

 and heard them as often as one every min- 

 ute. Sometimes the bird would be far be- 

 low me, sometimes near at hand ; and very 

 frequently the singer would be hovering a 

 hundred feet above the summit. He would 

 start from the trees on one side of the open 

 space, reach his climax in the air, and plunge 

 down on the other side. Its descent after 

 the song is finished is very rapid, and pre- 

 cisely like that of the titlark when it sweeps 

 down from its course to alight on the ground. 

 I first verified this observation some years 

 ago. I had long been familiar with the 

 song, but had only strongly suspected the 

 author of it, when, as I was walking in the 

 woods one evening, just as the leaves were 

 putting out, I saw one of these birds but a 

 few rods from me. I was saying to myself, 

 half audibly, " Come, now, show off, if it is 

 you ; I have come to the woods expressly to 

 settle this point," when it began to ascend, 

 by short hops and flights, through the 



