THE MASTERS OF MELODY. 101 



times for years together no human beings come. It 

 is down in the books that as a musician the hermit 

 thrush outranks all others of its kind. It is claimed 

 to have a more spiritual song, to reach in this di- 

 rection a little beyond all others. I have heard this 

 thrush in the mountains of North Carolina, in the 

 woods and by-ways of New England and Canada, 

 when hidden among rocks and trembling ferns in 

 Northern Pennsylvania, and twice along the Wissa- 

 hickon, near Philadelphia, I have heard it at its 

 best ; but is its song superior to that of all wood- 

 thrushes? I honestly doubt it. There is such a 

 wide range in the musical merits of individual birds 

 that it is scarcely fair to make a comparison, and in 

 localities where both species occur it would be diffi- 

 cult to determine which bird was singing. Does the 

 locality influence a bird's song ? This is not a silly 

 question. No caged bird ever sang as well as its 

 free brother, not even a mocking-bird ; and may it 

 not be that the primeval forest the hermit loves so 

 well, with all its grandeur of giant trees, mossy rocks, 

 still ponds, wild water-falls, and the companionship 

 of nature's fiercest forms of life, inspires this thrush 

 to efforts that we seldom hear in the tamer haunts 

 of its cousin ? but is not the less pretentious wood- 

 thrush sometimes impelled to an unusual effort, and, 

 so moved, does it not accomplish all that makes the 

 hermit one of the musical marvels of the country? 

 I may be wrong, but I have not yet been convinced 

 to the contrary. 



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