14 East and West 
We must accord, I believe, the Eastern 
hermit and wood thrush the first place among 
North American songsters. Theirs and the 
veery’s are certainly the most spiritual voices 
in Nature, as the song of the bobolink is the 
most blithesome and gay. Of all bird utter- 
ances, one of the most significant is the 
O-ka-lee of the redwing, but this is due 
largely to association and can never obtain 
with the same force and beauty on the Pacific 
Slope that it does in the East when, on some 
misty morning, we hear that voice of prophecy 
in the grey swamp and the face of the world 
seems changed in an instant. To me, the 
most truly sylvan voice is that of the ruby- 
crowned kinglet, while the wildest note that 
Nature utters through the throat of a bird is 
the song of the water ouzel. Our Eastern 
water thrushes also give expression to the 
wild and primeval in Nature. Both the 
Eastern and the Western cardinals have 
splendid rollicking voices and all the thrash- 
ers, like the mocking birds, are dramatic and 
finished singers, albeit too self-conscious. 
Some of the Western species are more voluble, 
and, if anything, better songsters than the 
Eastern. Of the wrens no more hopeful, 
ringing, divinely cheering voice is to be heard 
