enough of bird life to understand what emotions 

 they may have which so powerfully sway them 

 and become evident in their voices. The evidence 

 is there; the cause is to be inferred. While the 

 birds are everywhere more or less affected by the 

 approaching day and give voice to their feelings, 

 there appear to be musical centers in the bird 

 world in which the expression is more concerted 

 than in other localities, favored sections where 

 this hymn to Apollo is memorable indeed and 

 hardly to be described. It is a great chant with all 

 its solemnity, all its impressiveness. 



Beginning with the desultory calls of wood- 

 pewees, it is taken up by song-sparrows, robins and 

 catbirds, dominated by the devotional song of the 

 woodthrush who appears to act as chorister. Birds 

 seem to congregate from near and far and to in- 

 spire one another to unusual efforts. The volume 

 and stateliness of this chant, so measured and 

 rhythmical, carries with it vibrations of power 

 and cannot fail to communicate its influence to the 

 listener, be he bird or man. Here is a multitude 

 of birds actuated by a unity of purpose, impelled 

 by a single motive, and though every one sings 

 his own song, the myriad voices blend in one con- 



46 



