152 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
our vocalists in the following order : first the 
Mockingbird, as unrivalled; then the Wood 
Thrush, the Catbird, and Red Thrush; the 
Rose-breasted, Pine, and Blue Grosbeak; the 
Orchard and Golden Oriole; the Tawny and 
Hermit Thrushes; several Finches, — Bach- 
mann’s, the White-crowned, the Indigo, and the 
Nonpareil ; and, finally, the Bobolink. 
Among those birds of this list which fre- 
quent Massachusetts, the Hermit Thrush stands 
at the head. As I sat the other day in the deep 
woods beside a black brook which dropped from 
stone to stone beneath the shadow of our Rat- 
tlesnake Rocks, the air seemed at first as silent 
above me as the earth below. The buzz of 
summer sounds had not begun. Sometimes a 
bee hummed by with a long, swift thrill like 
a chord of music; sometimes a breeze came 
resounding up the forest like an approaching 
locomotive, and then died utterly away. Then, 
at length, a Veery’s delicious note rose in a 
fountain of liquid melody from beneath me ; and 
when it was ended, the clear, calm, interrupted 
chant of the Hermit Thrush fell like solemn 
water-drops from some source above. I am ac- 
quainted with no sound in nature so sweet, so 
elevated, so serene. Flutes and flageolets are 
art’s poor efforts to recall that softer sound. 
It is simple, and seems all prelude; but the 
