Midsummer Night Sounds 



ture too well or we shall miss that elusive 

 charm which pervades the poetry of Words- 

 worth, for instance. I am not sure but that 

 we should be more appreciative nature- 

 lovers if we did not feel obliged to identify 

 and mentally catalogue every creature and 

 plant we see and every song or cry we hear. 

 However, modern nature-study is nothing 

 if not exact, and if any old-fashioned rhap- 

 sodist makes a mistake of fact, he may be 

 pretty sure of getting snapped up before 

 his words are cold. 



There are other night sounds, peculiarly 

 characteristic of summer, which I should 

 like to describe, if I could ramble on thus 

 indefinitely the loon's wild laughter, for 

 instance, the fox's sharp bark, easily dis- 

 tinguishable from the shrillest yelp of a dog, 

 the many odd sounds made by frogs on a 

 summer night, and the varied hooting of the 

 owls. But my disconnected chapter is al- 

 ready too long, and I must wait for another 

 occasion to renew the subject. 



