10 TRAMPS WITH AN ENTHUSIAST. 



a sort of trill or tremolo, at the very extreme of 

 his register. Sometimes he gave the triplets 

 alone, without the introductory note ; but never, 

 in the weeks that I studied his song, did he 

 sing other than this one clause. 



It was only with an effort that I could force 

 myself to analyze the performance. Far easier 

 were it, and far more delightful, to sit en- 

 chanted, to be overwhelmed and intoxicated by 

 his thrilling music. For me, the hermit voices 

 the sublimity of the deep woods, while the veery 

 expresses its mystery, its unfathomable remote- 

 ness. A wood warbler, on the contrary, always 

 brings before me the rush and hurry of the 

 world of people, and the wood pewee its under- 

 current of eternal sadness. Into the mood in- 

 duced by the melancholy pewee song breaks 

 how completely and how happily the cheery 

 optimism of the chickadee ! Brooding thoughts 

 are dissipated, all is not a hollow mockery, and 

 life is still worth living. 



Often, when listening to the hermit song, I 

 wondered that at the first note of the king of 

 singers all other birds were not mute. But evi- 

 dently the birds have not enthroned this thrush. 

 Possibly, even, they do not share human admi- 

 ration for his song. The redstart goes on jerk- 

 ing out his monotonous ditty ; chippy irrever- 

 ently mounts a perch and trills out his inane 



