MORE TALK THAN SONG 59 



all his accomplishments, forming a potpourri 

 such as I never heard from thrush before. 

 I was greatly interested in this exhibition 

 of his character, and surprised at his versa- 

 tility. Though he lacked the serene repose, 

 the perfect dignity, of some of his family, 

 he was a bird of marked individuality, and 

 one well worthy of study. 



The utterance of this bird, though charm- 

 ing and delightful to hear, has never seemed 

 to me to merit the name of song. It has 

 always impressed me, from the first moment 

 I heard it in that far-off bit of woods, as a 

 conversation. The clauses are of varying 

 length, some with rising and others with 

 falling inflection, three or four or sometimes 

 as many as seven syllables in a clause, with 

 pauses between, and without regularity so 

 far as I can discover, and all on one note. 

 Although not much given to trying to repre- 

 sent the notes of birds by our words, I will 

 say that his clauses always sounded to me 

 like variations on the theme " Er-rick-er-ree." 

 His common call was like " er-re-hu ! " with 

 strong accent on the second syllable. 



After two hours with the thrush, the 



