156 IMPRESSIONS OF SOME ENGLISH BIRDS. 



tively. Not so fine in quality, though perhaps greater 

 in quantity. It sometimes happens that several spe- 

 cies of our best songsters pass the season in the same 

 locality, some favorite spot in the woods, or at the 

 head of a sheltered valley, that possesses attraction 

 for many kinds. I found such a place one summer 

 by a small mountain lake, in the southern Catskills, 

 just over the farm borders, in the edge of the prim- 

 itive forest. The lake was surrounded by an am- 

 phitheatre of wooded steeps, except a short space on 

 one side where there was an old abandoned clearing, 

 grown up to saplings and brush. Birds love to be 

 near water, and I think they like a good auditorium, 

 love an open space like that of a small lake in the 

 woods, where their voices can have room and their 

 songs reverberate. Certain it is they liked this place, 

 and early in the morning especially, say from half 

 past three to half past four, there was such a burst 

 of melody as I have never before heard. The most 

 prominent voices were those of the wood -thrush, 

 veery thrush, rose-breasted grosbeak, winter wren, 

 and one of the vireos, and occasionally at evening 

 that of the hermit, though far off in the dusky back- 

 ground ; birds all notable for their pure melody, ex- 

 cept that of the vireo, which was cheery, rather than 

 melodious. A singular song that of this particular 

 vireo : " Cheery, cheery, cheery drunk ! Cheery 

 drunk I " all day long in the trees above our tent. 

 The wood -thrush was the most abundant, and the 

 purity and eloquence of its strain, or of their mingled 



