THINGS TO HEAR THIS SUMMER 53 



VIII 



There is one bird-song so characteristic of mid- 

 summer that I think every lover of the woods must 

 know it : the oft-repeated, the constant notes of 

 the red-eyed vireo or "preacher." Wilson Flagg 

 says of him : " He takes the part of a deliberative 

 orator who explains his subject in a few words and 

 then makes a pause for his hearers to reflect upon 

 it. We might suppose him to be repeating moder- 

 ately with a pause between each sentence, ( You 

 see it you know it do you hear me ? do you 

 believe it ? ' All these strains are delivered with a 

 rising inflection at the close, and with a pause, as if 

 waiting for an answer." 



IX 



A few other bird-notes that are associated with 

 hot days and stirless woods, and that will be worth 

 your hearing are the tree-top song of the scarlet 

 tanager. He is one of the summer sights, a dash of 

 the burning tropics is his brilliant scarlet and jet 

 black, and his song is a loud, hoarse, rhythmical 

 carol that has the flame of his feathers in it and the 

 blaze of the sun. You will know it from the cool, 

 liquid song of the robin both by its peculiar quality 

 and because it is a short song, and soon ended, not 

 of indefinite length like the robin's. 



Then the peculiar, coppery, reverberating, or 



