Lake George 



which one intuitively feels, without perhaps 

 being able scientifically to explain. A man, 

 blind from his birth, was once asked to give his 

 idea of the sunrise. He replied that it seemed 

 to him it must be like the sound of a trumpet. 

 A bolder, more poetic, and in a sense accurate, 

 comparison of sight and sound could hardly be 

 imagined. Even those dry and literal people, 

 who would scorn the analogy under other cir- 

 cumstances, will hardly disapprove of this pa- 

 thetic, yet masterly, attempt to define, in terras 

 of his own experience, what one had never seen. 

 And, although without the excuse of blindness 

 for being fanciful, there always seems to me to 

 be a sort of crimson quality in the dark rich 

 tone of the downy woodpecker, different from 

 the call-note of any other species, and match- 

 ing the ornamental head-piece displayed by the 

 male. 



The Wilson thrush, or veery, is one of the 

 most abundant species in this region, and can be 

 heard occasionally throughout the day, in all 

 the woods, but becomes more melodious at dusk, 

 and prolongs its song later into the evening 

 than almost any other bird. The robin and 

 the thrushes belong to the same family ; but the 

 former is more plebeian and companionable, the 

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