SONGS OF THE WOODS 



listen to the hermit-thrush and see if you can think 

 idle thoughts. You must hear his message and 

 feel the spirit of his invocation the voice of one 

 crying in the wilderness. 



Why is the hermit moved to be thus didactic, 

 while in the fields beyond the field-sparrow lightly 

 trills and the merry bobolink continually bubbles 

 over with song? Such merry jingles, such uncon- 

 trollable outbursts of melody, such a rippling, 

 bubbling medley as comes up from the meadows, 

 while the thrush solemnly intones within the twi- 

 light shades of the woods ! Surely in view of this 

 we may speak of the temperament and the person- 

 ality of birds. If the bobolink's medley is not evi- 

 dence of a light heart, then are appearances de- 

 ceptive indeed. Care rests easily if at all upon 

 his hopeful nature, but the burden of his song is 

 quite as well worth heeding as is that of the 

 thrush. One is lyric, the other didadtic. The 

 bobolink communicates his joyous and irrepressible 

 spirits, as the thrush his serene exaltation. It is 

 certain the wood birds are of a different tempera- 

 ment from the field birds. Either they are influ- 

 enced to their prevailing moods by their environ- 

 ments, or they are attracted thereto by their own 



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