THE INVITATION 219 
notwithstanding the difference of form and build, 
etc., is very suggestive of the English skylark, as 
it figures in the books, and is, no doubt, fully its 
equal as a songster. 
Of our small wood-birds we have three varieties 
east of the Mississippi, closely related to each other, 
which I have already spoken of, and which walk, 
and sing, more or less, on the wing, namely, the 
two species of water-thrush or wagtails, and the 
oven-bird or wood-wagtail. The latter is the most 
common, and few observers of the birds can have 
failed to notice its easy, gliding walk. Its other 
lark trait, namely, singing in the air, seems not to 
have been observed by any naturalist. Yet it is 
a well-established characteristic, and may be verified 
by any person who will spend a half hour in the 
woods where this bird abounds on some June after- 
noon or evening. I hear it very frequently after 
sundown, when the ecstatic singer can hardly be 
distinguished against the sky. I know of a high, 
bald-top mountain where I have sat late in the after- 
noon and heard them as often as one every minute. 
Sometimes the bird would be far below me, some- 
times near at hand; and very frequently the singer 
would be hovering a hundred feet above the sum- 
mit. He would start from the trees on one side of 
the open space, reach his climax in the air, and 
plunge down on the other side. Its descent after 
the song is finished is very rapid, and precisely like 
that of the titlark when it sweeps down from its 
course to alight on the ground. 
J 
