The Chorus of tlic Forest 



Laboratory of Ornitnoiwgy 

 159 Sapsucker Woods RoaB 

 Cornell University 

 Ithaca. New York 14850 



evening, -wheii others A\ere singing vesj)ers, lie 

 stood on tii>toes, and reaehing liis limit for his 

 highest note with which to surpass them, in a posi- 

 tively lazy manner slid sohhingly down the scale 

 to his last clear utterance. At the instant we mis- 

 guided mortals Avere shuddering over the heart- 

 break in these wailing, long-drawn notes the little 

 rascal was turning somersaults in the air, darting 

 here and there after a fly, his sharp mandibles 

 clipping together when he missed until the sound 

 came to us on the ground far below. He was 

 the hap2:)iest little creature of song and dance that 

 \\'ore a feathered coat. 



Beside his tree grew another that made me 

 wonder why, since from the inception of art dec- 

 orators, designers, and ])ainters ha\'e gone to the Art in 

 forest for copy, they did not use this. From tlie ti^e Forest 

 frequency with which oiu- artists work over de- 

 signs of fern, violet, goldenrod, and SAveet brier, 

 one might be forgiven the supposition that with 

 these, material was exhausted. I think the truth 

 is that these good folk kejit to the fence or turned 

 back at the gateway, and never ])enetrated to the 

 heart of the forest. Things infinitely more beau- 

 tiful than those that ha^e been used are waiting 

 to be discovered and familiarized. Finding almost 

 a tree for size ladened Avith veh'ety big green fruit 

 made me think of studies of papaw bloom that 

 I had made early in the season. 



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