136 ITS HOME IN THE HEBRIDES. 



lichens, and returns in softer and sweeter modulations from the sides 

 of the heathy mountains. There may be wilder, louder, and more 

 marvellous songs, and the Mocking-bird may be singing the requiem 

 of the red Indian of the Ohio, or cheering the heart of his ruthless 

 oppressor, the white man of many inventions ; but to me it is all- 

 sufficient, for it enters into the soul, melts the heart into tenderness, 

 diffuses a holy calm, and connects the peace of earth with the trans- 

 cendent happiness of heaven. In other places the song of the 

 Thrush may be lively and cheering ; here, in the ocean-girt solitude, 

 it is gentle and soothing : by its magic influence it smoothes the 

 ruffled surface of the sea of human feelings, as it floats over it at 

 intervals with its varied swells and cadences, like the perfumed 

 wavelets of the summer wind. 



Here on the hill-side lay thee down on this grassy bank, beside 

 the block of gneiss that in some convulsion of primeval times has 

 been hurled unbroken from the fissured crag above. On the slope 

 beneath are small winding plots of corn, with intervals of pasture, 

 and tufts of the yellow iris. The coast is here formed of shelving 

 crags and jutting promontories ; there, stretches along in a winding 

 beach of white sand, on which the wavelets rush with gentle mur- 

 murs. Flocks of Mergansers and dusky Cormorants are fishing in 

 the bay, the white Grannets are flying in strings toward the ocean, 

 the Eock-doves glide past on whistling pinions, and the joyous 

 Starlings bound toward their rocky homes. Hark to the cry of the 

 Corn-crake, softened by distance, now seeming to come from afar, 

 now louder as if borne toward you by the breeze. It has ceased, 

 but the Cuckoo calls to his mate from the cairn on the hill. Again 

 all is silent. The streaks in the channel show that the tide is ebb- 

 ing ; a thin white vapour is spread over the distant islands ; and 

 beyond them the spirit wings its flight over the broad surface of the 

 ocean to where the air and the waters blend on the western horizon. 

 But it is recalled by the clear loud notes of that speckled warbler, 

 that in the softened sunshine pours forth his wild melodies on the 

 gladdened ear. Listen, and think how should you describe the 

 strain, so as to impress its characters on the mind of one who never 

 heard it. Perhaps you might say that it consists of a succession of 

 notes greatly diversified, repeated at short intervals with variations, 

 and protracted for a long time ; that it is loud, clear, and mellow, 

 generally sprightly, but at times tender and melting. You might 

 add that two birds at a distance from each other often respond, the 

 one commencing its song when the other has ceased; and that 

 sometimes several may be heard at once, filling a whole glen with 

 their warblings. 



With us the Thrush is very much the songster of the 

 road-side copse or plantation, garden, or orchard ; we fre- 

 quently hear it close to the humble dwellings of the poor, 



