A LOST FEBRUARY 



from out the heart of sacred solitude, and made 

 me want to follow 



" And with thee fade away into the forest dim : 



" Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget 



What thou among the leaves hast never known. 

 The weariness, the fever, and the fret 



Here, where men sit and hear each other groan." 



When I first heard a single bar of the song, I was 

 strongly reminded of the plaint of the Oregon ro})in 

 as I had heard it in the wilds of Alaska. It was the 

 same tapering, soulful monotone. This may be the 

 reason that the full song seemed to me more expres- 

 sive of Alaskan solitudes, with so much in them that 

 was to the eye what pure melody is to the ear, than 

 of tropical forests. 



There is another bird in Jamaica (called by the 

 natives the Spanish quail, because there is a look 

 about the head that suggests the quail), that I heard 

 briefly on one occasion utter notes much like those 

 of the solitaire. The native oriole has a whistle that 

 recalls that of our oriole, and the native kingbird 

 is almost a copy of ours. A species of grackle or 

 crow blackbird, with his white eye, had a ver\' famil- 

 iar look. A queer, clownish-looking bird is the little 

 tody, with its green suit and large, golden beak. It 

 looked as if made up for some carnival. I did not 

 hear it sing or rehearse its part. There are several 



2G7 



