24 WAKE-ROBIN 
that so obviously and unmistakably surpassed all 
his rivals, that my companion, though slow to 
notice such things, remarked it wonderingly; and 
with one accord we paused to listen to so rare a 
performer. It was not different in quality so much 
as in quantity. Such a flood of it! Such copious- 
ness! Such long, trilling, accelerating preludes! 
Such sudden, ecstatic overtures would have intoxi- 
cated the dullest ear. He was really without a 
compeer, —a master-artist. Twice afterward I was 
conscious of having heard the same bird. 
The wood thrush is the handsomest species of 
this family. In grace and elegance of manner he 
has no equal. Such a gentle, high-bred air, and 
such inimitable ease and composure in his flight and 
movement! He is a poet in very word and deed. 
His carriage is music to the eye. His performance 
of the commonest act, as catching a beetle, or pick- 
ing a worm from the mud, pleases like a stroke of 
wit or eloquence. Was he a prince in the olden 
time, and do the regal grace and mien still adhere 
to him in his transformation? What a finely pro- 
portioned form! How plain, yet rich, his color, — 
the bright russet of his back, the clear white of his 
breast, with the distinct heart-shaped spots! It 
may be objected to Robin that he is noisy and 
demonstrative; he hurries away or rises to a branch 
with an angry note, and flirts his wings in ill-bred 
suspicion. The mavis, or red thrush, sneaks and 
skulks like a culprit, hiding in the densest alders; 
the catbird is a coquette and a flirt, as well as a 
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