52 IN THE HEMLOCKS. 



ing at the same time in the same locality, rivaling each 

 other, like the wood-thrush or the veery. Shooting 

 one from a tree, I have observed another take up the 

 strain from almost the identical perch in less than ten 

 minutes afterward. Later in the day when I had pene- 

 trated the heart of the old " Barkpeeling," I came sud- 

 denly upon one singing from a low stump, and for a 

 wonder he did not seem alarmed, but lifted up his di- 

 vine voice as if his privacy was undisturbed. I open 

 his beak and find the inside yellow as gold. 1 was pre- 

 pared to find it inlaid with pearls and diamonds, or to 

 see an angel issue from it. 



He is not much in the books. Indeed, I am ac- 

 quainted with scarcely any writer on ornithology whose 

 head is not muddled on the subject of our three prevail- 

 ing song-thrushes, confounding either their figures or 

 their songs. A writer in the " Atlantic " ' gravely tells 

 us the wood-thrush is sometimes called the hermit, and 

 then, after describing the song of the hermit with great 

 beauty and correctness, coolly ascribes it to the veery ! 

 The new Cyclopaedia, fresh from the study of Audubon, 

 says the hermit's song consists of a single plaintive 

 note, and that the veery's resembles that of the wood- 

 thrush ! These observations deserve to be preserved 

 with that of the author of " Out-door Papers," who tells 

 us the trill of the hair-bird (Fringillia socialis) is pro- 

 duced by the bird fluttering its wings upon its sides ! 



1 For December, 1858. 



