The Chorus of the Forest 



among the treetops he is provided \\ ith wisdom and 

 preculiarly protected by natxn-e. His coat is the 

 color of bark, liis location is a lichen-covered limb, 

 his nest a small tiat bowl of finest twigs, grass- 

 lined, and sha])ed to rei)rodnce exactly the kiiots 

 on the trees aronnd it, and then covered with 

 lichens to match those closest. This covering is 

 deftly bonnd ^^'ith spider -webs jjassing under the 

 limb and aronnd the nest secm-ely. When the 

 young emerge and feather, like separate seeds of 

 the globe of a dandelion is the down that covers 

 them, and in their nest or on the limb beside it, 

 behold! they ap])ear as lichens too. We noticed 

 how inconspicuously colored the elders were, how 

 they matched the treetops and the nest some time 

 deserted, and how deft they were at twisting and 

 turning on wing — real acrobats, — so that no other 

 birds of field or forest are better ])rotected or so 

 sure to bring off a brood in safety. 



Then why this very mournful music recorded by 

 every ornithologist who ever wrote of them? The 

 answer is, there is no sadness in their song. In 

 all of a long and varied ac(iuaintance with them I 

 have fomid them particularly jolly small birds, 

 safe above the average, much closer heaven than 

 any other of their size. They are not of doleful 

 disposition, and no inconsolable grief is theirs. 

 They are true children of the forest, and in its 

 solemn silences, in the slow Mail of its winds, in 



75 



