30 THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS. 



unique. The performer is very careful not 

 to reveal himself in the mean time ; yet 

 there is a conscious air about the strain that 

 impresses me with the idea that my presence 

 is understood and my attention courted. A 

 tone of pride and glee, and, occasionally, of 

 bantering jocoseness, is discernible. I be- 

 lieve it is only rarely, and when he is sure 

 of his audience, that he displays his parts in 

 this manner. You are to look for him, not 

 in tall trees or deep forests, but in low, dense 

 shrubbery about wet places, where there are 

 plenty of gnats and mosquitoes. 



The winter-wren is another marvellous 

 songster, in speaking of whom it is difficult 

 to avoid superlatives. He is not so conscious 

 of his powers and so ambitious of effect 

 as the white-eyed fly-catcher, yet you will 

 not be less astonished and delighted on hear- 

 ing him. He possesses the fluency and copi- 

 ousness for which the wrens are noted, and 

 besides these qualities, and what is rarely 

 found conjoined with them, a wild, sweet, 

 rhythmical cadence that holds you entranced. 

 I shall not soon forget that perfect June day, 

 when, loitering in a low, ancient hemlock 

 wood, in whose cathedral aisles the coolness 

 and freshness seem perennial, the silence 



