Where Town and Country Meet 



paid much attention to these voices of the 

 night, in the migrating season, must have 

 noticed how very much alike in general 

 character they are commonly a clear, thin, 

 elfin whistle, short in duration, and rapidly 

 repeated, with a sort of unearthly and phan 

 tom quality, as if the bird uttering it were 

 in a state of ethereal frenzy, caught away 

 like a spirit through great gulfs of space, 

 and crying to its fellows half in fear and 

 half in rapture. 



Many species of birds, especially the 

 smaller songsters, utter migratory cries 

 which are practically indistinguishable from 

 one another. If you happen to be lying 

 awake on a lowery, still, warmish spring 

 night (with your window open, I hope, for 

 no genuine lover of nature is squeamish 

 about night air), you will very likely hear 

 many of these elfin voices out of the sky, 

 beginning faintly, increasing rapidly in vol 

 ume, and then dying as rapidly away. With 

 the exception of such large and coarse- 

 voiced birds as the water-fowl, the cries of 

 these aerial pilgrims will sound alike to your 

 ear the same tremulous, thin, clear, rather 

 melancholy whistle, with that transcendent 

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