6 AN IDLER ON MISSIONARY RIDGE. 



had ever heard. I think it never suggested 

 to me any music except the song sparrow's. 

 The truth is, I suppose, that we feel resem- 

 blances and relationships of which the mind 

 takes no cognizance. 



I wandered at a venture down the further 

 slope, turning this way and that as a song 

 invited me. Here were Southerners and 

 Northerners fraternally commingled: siun- 

 mer tanagers, Carolina wrens, blue - gray 

 gnatcatchers, cardinal grosbeaks, chats, 

 Bachman finches, field sparrows, chippers, 

 white-throated sparrows, chewinks, indigo 

 buntings, black-poll warblers, myrtle-birds, 

 prairie warblers, a Maryland yellow-throat, 

 a bay-breasted warbler, a black-and-white 

 creeper, a redstart, brown thrushes, cat- 

 birds, a single mocking - bird, wood 

 thrushes, red-eyed vireos, white-eyed vireos, 

 wood pewees, a quail, and, in the air, pur- 

 ple martins and turkey buzzards. On the 

 Kidge, as well as near the foot on our way 

 up, a mocking-bird and a wood thrush sang 

 within hearing of each other. Comparison as 

 between birds so dissimilar is useless and out 

 of place ; but how shall a man avoid it ? The 

 mocking-bird is a great vocalist, — yes, and 



