48 East and West 
but merely comes out to the edge where we 
see him. The queer gnome-like little creature 
may in truth be a gnome for aught we can 
say. He lives by concealment, darting about 
as surreptitiously as a wood-mouse, and this 
self-obliteration is the very law of the wilder- 
ness. So it is that his song is a disembodied 
voice escaping for a moment into the silence, 
as wild a woodland ditty as ever fell upon 
listening ear. 
While the song of the hermit is the most 
beautiful of all, that of the veery is more 
mysterious. Mr. Burroughs aptly describes 
its note as spheral! spheral! spheral! and 
surely it is an impersonal and spheral music. 
He sings not of our world, but it may be of 
that enchanted sphere, the heart of the wilder- 
ness. It is sombre in the depths where these 
thrushes flit, a region not of sunshine but 
of twilight and shadows. Nothing in the 
whole range of bird music—of any music— 
could better express its peculiar atmosphere, 
its solemnity, its cathedral character. Un- 
consciously these birds voice their environ- 
ment as truly and appropriately as Wagner, 
with his psychological subtlety and insight, 
adapted his motifs to his characters and 
their emotions. The song of the hermit 
