62 ON THE BIRDS' HIGHWAY 



Think what voices are forever silenced 

 each autumn by sportsmen ! ah ! I feel sure 

 if each one of them could hear that song, 

 fewer woodcock would fail to the lot of 

 some faithful dog to retrieve. It is hardly 

 a matter of prophecy, when we say that 

 a quarter century will hear the last love 

 song of the woodcock. It is an interest- 

 ing fact that few of the early ornitholo- 

 gists heard it or were aware that Philohela 

 minor possessed such a power. 



When we know of an instance of an 

 old Virginian having followed the singing 

 of a northern shrike for an hour or more, 

 supposing he was listening to the song 

 of a mocking bird, we are praising the 

 " butcher bird " in high terms. Never- 

 theless, such a thing has happened. We 

 are surprised to find that Minot speaks 

 of this bird as being " incapable of utter- 

 ing musical sounds " and that Mr. Park- 

 hurst in his " Bird Calendar " also writes 

 in this wise — "a sort of miniature vulture 

 in its habits and by one of the inexplicable 

 mysteries of science classed among song 

 birds ! . . . My attention was first called 

 to it by hearing a harsh, uncouth noise, 

 as unmusical as the creaking of a hinge, 



