32 UPON THE WOOD ROAD 



former, as he and his near relations are 

 already in quality of voice. But he seems to 

 be possessed of an unfortunate desire to sing 

 higher than his register, and invariably, so 

 far as I have heard, he persists in this ef- 

 fort, and goes all to pieces on the high note. 

 At least so his song sounds to one listener 

 who finds the heavenly first clauses sadly 

 marred by the closing one. 



The most exquisite, and altogether ex- 

 traordinary exhibition of hermit-thrush pos- 

 sibilities I have heard, strange to say, from 

 a captive. A bird who had flown against a 

 house in the fall migration had been picked 

 up, stunned. He was plainly a young bird 

 of the year, not in the least afraid of people, 

 and he soon became perfectly tame, while he 

 solaced the long hours of idleness with the 

 glorious full song of the species. But the 

 exhibition that captivated my soul was his 

 low undertone notes, so liquid and bubbling 

 in character, so inexpressibly sweet and thrill- 

 ing, and so evidently out of a joyous heart. 



Somewhere on this attractive wood road 

 was hidden an oven-bird's nest which I 

 wanted much to see. I never thought, how- 



