34 THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS. 



cepting the canary, that displays different degrees of 

 proficiency in the exercise of his musical gifts. Not 

 long since, while walking one Sunday in the edge of 

 an orchard adjoining a wood, I heard one that so ob- 

 viously and unmistakably surpassed all his rivals, 

 that my companion, though slow to notice such 

 things, remarked it wonderingly ; and with one ac- 

 cord we paused to listen to so rare a performer. It 

 was not different in quality so much as in quantity. 

 Such a flood of it ! Such copiousness ! Such long, 

 trilling, accelerating preludes ! Such sudden, ecstatic 

 overtures, would have intoxicated the dullest ear. 

 He was really without a compeer a master-artist. 

 Twice afterward I was conscious of having heard the 

 same bird. 



The wood-thrush is the handsomest species of this 

 family. In grace and elegance of manner he has no 

 equal. Such a gentle, high-bred air, and such inim- 

 itable ease and composure in his flight and move- 

 ment ! He is a poet in very word and deed. His 

 carriage is music to the eye. His performance of 

 the commonest act, as catching a beetle, or picking 

 a worm from the mud, pleases like a stroke of wit or 

 eloquence. Was he a prince in the olden time, and 

 do the regal grace and mien still adhere to him in his 

 transformation ? What a finely proportioned form ! 

 How plain, yet rich his color, the bright russet of 

 his back, the clear white of his breast, with the dis- 

 tinct heart-shaped spots ! It may be objected to 

 Uobin that he is noisy and demonstrative ; he hurriei 



