16 IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 
always in the pine lands, and haunting the 
dense undergrowth, it is heard a hundred 
times where it is seen once, —a point greatly 
in favor of its effectiveness as a musician. 
Mr. Brewster speaks of it as singing always 
from an elevated perch, while the birds that 
I saw in the act of song, a very limited num- 
ber, were invariably perched low. One that 
I watched in New Smyrna (one of a small 
chorus, the others being invisible) sang for 
a quarter of an hour from a stake or stump 
which rose perhaps a foot above the dwarf 
palmetto. It was the same song that I had 
heard in St. Augustine ; only the birds here 
were in a livelier mood, and sang owt instead 
of sotto voce. The long introductory note 
sounded sometimes as if it were indrawn, and 
often, if not always, had a considerable burr 
in it. Once in a while the strain was caught 
up at the end and sung over again, after the 
manner of the field sparrow, — one of that 
bird’s prettiest tricks. At other times the 
song was delivered with full voice, and then 
repeated almost under the singer’s breath. 
This was done beautifully in the Port Orange 
flat-woods, the bird being almost at my feet. 
I had seen him a moment before, and saw him 
