34 THE SONG OF THE HERMIT 



ness of the lay of our Hermit : he compares it to the famous 

 Nightingale, that sweet princess of song, and ranks it far 

 above the Wood Thrush. Later writers agree in this high 

 estimate of the bird's powers, though it may be questioned 

 whether a comparison unfavorable to the Wood Thrush is a 

 perfectly just discrimination. The weird associations of the 

 spot where the Hermit triumphs, the mystery inseparable from 

 the voice of an unseen musician, conspire to heighten the effect 

 of the sweet, silvery, bell-like notes, which, beginning soft, low, 

 and tinkling, rise higher and "higher, to end abruptly with a 

 clear, ringing intonation. It is the reverse of the lay of the 

 Wood Thrush, which swells at once into powerful and sustained 

 effort, then gradually dies away, as though the bird were reced- 

 ing from us ; for the song of the Hermit first steals upon us 

 from afar, then seems to draw nearer, as if the timid recluse 

 were weary of solitude, and craved recognition of its conscious 

 power to please. Yet it is but a momentary indecision 

 true to a vow of seclusion, the anchorite is gone again to its 

 inviolate grotto in the fastnesses of the swamp, where a world 

 of melody is wasted in its pathetic song of life : 



"Full many a gem of purest ray serene, 

 The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear ; 

 Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 

 And waste its sweetness on the desert air." 



Olive-backed Thrush 



Tnrtlus (Hylocichla) swainsoiii 



a. swainsoni. 



Little ThPHSh, Penn. AZ. ii. 1785, 338, No. 201 (not of Latham). 



TlirdUS minor, Gm, SN. i. pt. ii. 1788, 809 (in part ; mixed \vithjuscescens). Lath. IO. i. 1790, 

 328, No. 5 (in part). Turt. SN. i. 1806, 491. Vieill. OAS. ii, 1807, 7, pi. 63 (in part). 



TlirdUS minor, Bp. C. & GL. 1838, 17 (wrongly quotes FB A. pi. 36, which is fuscescens). 

 Bp. CA. i. 1850, W\.Reinh. J. f. O. 1854, 427 (Greenland). ,SW. PZS. 1857, 212 

 (Orizaba). Reink. Ibis, iii. 1861, 6 (Greenland). 



Brown Thrush, Penn. AZ. ii. 1785, 337, No. 199. Lath. Syn. ii. pt. i. 1783, 28, No. 16. 



Tlirdus ftlSCUS, Gm. SN. i. pt. ii. 1783, 817, No. 56 (based on Pnn. & Lath. ; name pre- 

 occupied). Turt. SN. i. 1806, 497. 



Turflus SOlitariuS, Wils. AO. v. 1812, pi. 43, f. 2 (not the text on p. 95). Coues, Pr. Boat. 

 Soc. xii. 1868, 106 (South Carolina. Slip of the pen for swainsoni). 



Mei'Ula Wilsonii, S. ffR. FBA. ii. 1831, 182 (excl. syn. " mustelinus Wils."). 



Merilla Olivacea, Brew. Pr. Bost. Soc. i. 1844, 191. Thomps. Vermont, 1853, app. 22. 



Turdus Olivaceus, Giraud, BLI. 1844, 92. Bry. Pr. Bost. Soc. vi. 1857, 117 (Nova Scotia). 

 Willis, Smiths. Rep. for 1858, 1859, 281 (Nova Scotia). Martens, J. f. O. 1859, 212 (Ber- 

 mudas). 



