156 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



forth hiti loud and varied song, which may be heard 

 above every other note. A little dee)Der in the woods, 

 near the borders of streams, the wood-thrashes, the last 

 to become silent, may be heard responding to one 

 another, with their trilled and exquisite notes, unsur- 

 passed in melody and expression, frorn the sun's early 

 decline, until the purple of twilight has nearly departed. 

 During all this time, and the greater part of the day, 

 in the solemn depths of the forest, where almost all 

 other singing birds are strangers, resounds the distinct, 

 peculiar, and almost unearthly warbling of the hermit- 

 thrush, who recites his different strains, with such long 

 pauses, and with such a varied modulation, that they 

 might be mistaken for the notes of several different 

 birds. 



At nightfall, though the air is no longer resonant 

 with song, our ears are greeted with a variety of pleas- 

 ing and romantic sounds. In the still darkness, apart 

 from the village hum, may be heard the frequent flut- 

 tering of the wings of night birds, when the general 

 silence permits their musical vibrations to resound dis- 

 tinctly from different distances, during their short, mys- 

 terious fliglits. These sounds, to which I used to listen 

 with ravishment, in my early days, are more suggestive 

 than music, and always come to my remembrance, as 

 one of the delightful things connected with a summer 

 evening in the country. At the same time, in my late 

 evening rambles, I have often paused, to hear the respon- 

 sive chirping of the snipes, in the open plains, during 

 their season of courtship ; and to watch their occasional 

 whirling flight, as with whistling wings, they soar like 

 the lark into the skies, to meet and warble together, 

 above the darkness that envelops the earth. With the 



