168 BIRDS OF THE PASTURE AND FOREST. 



At this hour, during a period of nine or ten weeks, he 

 charms the evening with his strains, and often prolongs 

 them in still weather until after dusk, and whispers them 

 sweetly into the ear of Night. 



His song, though loud for so small a bird, is modulated 

 with such a sweet and flowing cadence that it comes to 

 the ear like a strain from some elfin source. It seems 

 at first to be wanting in variety. I formerly thought 

 so, while at the same time I was puzzled to account for 

 its enchanting effect on the mind of the listener. The 

 same remark may be applied to the human voice. I 

 suppose I am not the only person who can remember 

 certain female voices, which, with limited compass and 

 execution, do, by a peculiar native modulation, combined 

 with great simplicity, affect the listener with emotions 

 such as no prima donna could produce. Having never 

 heard the Nightingale, I can draw no comparison between 

 that bird and the Veery. But neither the Mocking-Bird, 

 nor any other bird in our woods, utters a single strain to 

 be compared in sweetness and expression to the five bars 

 of the simple song of the Veery. 



Were we to attempt to perform these notes upon a 

 musical instrument, we should fail from the difficulty of 

 imitating their peculiar .trilling and the liquid ventrilo- 

 quial sounds at the end of each strain. The whole is 

 warbled in such a manner as to produce on the ear the 

 effect of harmony, and to combine in a remarkable degree 

 the two different qualities of brilliancy and plaintiveness. 

 The former effect is produced by the first notes of each 

 strain, which are sudden and on a high key ; the second 

 by the graceful chromatic slide to the termination, which 

 is inimitable and exceedingly solemn. I have sometimes 

 imagined that a part of the delightful influence of these 

 notes might be ascribed to the cloistered recesses in which 

 they are delivered. But I have occasionally heard them 



