II 



IN THE MOUNTAINS WITH 

 THE HERMIT THRUSH 



THAT the hermit thrush has not been 

 awarded the supremacy among the 

 singers of the bird-world is probably due 

 to the difficulty usually found in hearing 

 the bird's complete song. I say complete 

 song; for it is easy enough, on a July 

 evening, to walk out a half mile from a 

 mountain hotel, in northern New Eng- 

 land, and, while discussing the last game 

 of golf, catch certain insistent, far-com- 

 ing fragments of the song. Such frag- 

 ments are worth a long journey, but to 

 hear these is not to hear the whole song 

 in its astonishing variety of delicate and 

 intricate cadence. For this utter hearing 

 of the song one needs to be near enough 

 to separate definitely every phrase, yes, 

 even to seize surely every vibrating note 



45 



