"THE STRANGE THINGS BIRDS DO." 255 



the ways of birds, is the enjoyment to be taken in their songs 

 and calls, which often tell us as much as our eyes could dis- 

 cover. 



If your musical ear is not good, and you cannot whistle a 

 bird's song or write it in musical notes, you may put it into 

 words that will say as nearly as possible what the bird seems 

 to be singing. 



u For what are the voices of birds, ' 



Ay, and of beasts, but words ouj* words, 



Only so much more sweet ? " 



This exercise will fix your mind upon the bird's song and 

 will help you to carry this in your memory from year to 

 year, though it has no other value unless it is very well 

 done. There is, however, always the chance of doing it well, 

 so well that it becomes a classic, and everybody after you will 

 quote your version because now they can hear nothing else 

 than what you heard. Do we not always remember Thoreau's 

 version of the brown thrasher's talk to the farmer : " Cover it 

 up ! cover it up ! cover it up ! Pick it up ! pick it up ! pick it 

 up ! Pull it up ! pull it up ! pull it up ! " a song that shows 

 properly enough that their relationship is with those nervous 

 little scolds, the wrens, rather than with the divinely placid 

 spotted thrushes. How Mr. John Burroughs's "0 spheral, 

 spheral ! holy, holy ! " the ringing vesper hymn of the hermit 

 thrush, doth " serenely exalt the spirit ! " It brings up 

 before us the birch wood veiled with a misty gauze of half- 

 unfolded leaves and sweet with the earthy fragrance of early 

 May, where, in religious solitude, these saintly singers, like 

 nuns in chapel, chant an evening service. "O spheral, spheral ! 

 holy, holy ! " 



We are indebted to Mr. Burroughs for many of these clear 

 transcriptions of songs we have known * always. "Teacher! 



