BIRDS OF CHOCORUA 203 



to inspect you if you will but sit quietly in the 

 region in which that " witchery " song is born 

 out of the circumambient air. 



Into the upper end of Chocorua Lake flows a 

 brook of transparent water, fed by melting snows, 

 out of " the heart of the mountain/' Along this 

 the song of the water thrush leads the wanderer 

 from one limpid pool to another, a song that has 

 in it some of the liquid prattle of the stream but 

 more of a dominant, aggressive note that carries 

 far. There is a touch of sunlight in the color of 

 the water thrush's breast, sunlight flecked with 

 little brown shadow markings that are like the 

 uniform brown of his back, and if it were not that 

 he sticks so closely to the water he might suggest 

 the oven-bird to the careless glance. There is 

 something of the song sparrow and the oven-bird 

 at once in his song. It is as if the two birds had 

 mated to produce him and the singing masters 

 of both families had had the youngsters to singing 

 school. Up this clear-water brook the oven-birds 

 call you by way of the height of land, the water 

 thrushes from pool to pool, while the sun drops 

 behind Paugus in mid afternoon, and the blue 



