IN THE HEMLOCKS. 65 



mandible yellow as gold ; throat yellow, 

 becoming a dark bronze on the breast. Blue 

 yellow-back he is called, though the yellow 

 is much nearer a bronze. He is remarkably 

 delicate and beautiful, the handsomest as 

 he is the smallest of the warblers known to 

 me. It is never without surprise that I find 

 amid these rugged, savage aspects of nature 

 creatures so fairy and delicate. But such 

 is the law. Go to the sea, or climb the 

 mountain, and with the ruggedest and the 

 savagest you will find likewise the fairest 

 and the most delicate. The greatness and 

 the minuteness of nature pass all under- 

 standing. 



Ever since I entered the woods, even while 

 listening to the lesser songsters, or contem- 

 plating the silent forms about me, a strain 

 has reached my ears from out the depths of 

 the forest that to me is the finest sound in 

 nature, the song of the hermit-thrush. I 

 often hear him thus a long way off, some- 

 times over a quarter of a mile away, when 

 only the stronger and more perfect parts of 

 his music reach me; and through the gen- 

 eral chorus of wrens and warblers I detect 

 this sound rising pure and serene, as if a 

 spirit from some remote height were slowly 



