24 TRAMPS WITH AN ENTHUSIAST. 



song of the former has been translated into a 

 word so unworthy as "peabody," and that the 

 name " peabody bird " has become fastened on 

 him in New England. Far more appropriate 

 the words applied by Elizabeth Akers Allen to 

 an unknown singer, possibly this very bird, 

 embodied in her beautiful poem " The Sun- 

 set Thrush." For whatever bird it was in- 

 tended, the syllables and arrangement corre- 

 spond to the white-throat's utterance, and the 

 words are, " Sweet ! sweet ! sweet ! Sorrowful ! 

 sorrowful ! sorrowful ! " 



A white-throat who haunted the neighborhood 

 of my farmhouse did not confine himself to the 

 family song ; which, by the way, varies less with 

 this species than with any other I know. At 

 first, for some time, he entirely omitted the trip- 

 lets, making his song consist of four long notes, 

 the fourth being in place of the triplets. Then, 

 later, he dropped the last note a half tone below 

 the others, still omitting the triplets, which, in 

 fact, in three or four weeks of listening and 

 watching, I never once heard him utter. In 

 July of that year, in passing over the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway on my way West, I heard innu- 

 merable songs by this bird. Every time the 

 train stopped, white-throat voices rang out on 

 all sides, and with considerable variety. Many 

 dropped half a tone at the end, and some uttered 



