48 THE MOUNTAINS 



Fugues, the combination would, I think, 

 affect me precisely as does the finished 

 song of the hermit thrush. I become like 

 a man sitting in the gloaming, reminis- 

 cently dreaming, and yet feeling a rich 

 hope that the dawn will at last break over 

 the tops of the mountains! 



. To reenf orce my testimony, I will quote 

 from Schuyler Mathews. In his Field 

 Book of Wild Birds and Their Music, 

 first published in 1904, he furnishes musi- 

 cal notations made by himself, excepting 

 those of the nightingale, which are tran- 

 scriptions from Lescuyer and Athanasius 

 Kircher. Based upon these exact nota- 

 tions, the author makes various comments, 

 many of them both striking and illuminat- 

 ing. From these I will quote some of the 

 most important portions : 



The song of the hermit thrush is the grand 

 climax of all bird music; it is unquestionably 

 so far removed from all the rest of the wild- 

 wood singer's accomplishment that vaunted 

 comparisons are invidious and wholly out of 



