192 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



though all except the goldfinches and the 

 chickadees were noticeably out of voice. 

 Once a grouse drummed, and once a flicker 

 called hi, hi, just as in springtime ; and 

 every warm day set the hylas peeping. 

 Once, too, a ruby-crowned kinglet sang for 

 us with all freedom, and once a gold-crest. 

 The latter's song is a very indifferent per- 

 formance, hardly to be called musical in any 

 proper sense of the word ; nothing but his 

 ordinary zeer-zee-zee, with a hurried, jumbled, 

 ineffective coda ; yet it suggests, and indeed 

 is much like, a certain few notes of the ruby- 

 crown's universally admired tune. The two 

 songs are evidently of a common origin, 

 though the ruby-crown's is so immeasurably 

 superior that one of my friends seemed al- 

 most offended with me, not long ago, when 

 I asked him to notice the resemblance be- 

 tween the two. None the less, the resem- 

 blance is real. The homeliest man may 

 bear a family likeness to his handsome 

 brother, though it may show itself only at 

 times, and chance acquaintances may easily 

 be unaware of its existence. 



The breeziest voice of the week was a 



