88 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



eary on the part of the hearer to understand the mu- 

 sical drift of Nature. So Beethoven gives his imag- 

 ination full play, and constructs a part of his sym- 

 phony not from the yellow-hammer's monotonous 

 "kee-er, kee-er" alone, ^^^^_ -_^ ^^ 



but from the association f m f f f T f f f \ \\ ' f " 

 of these vigorous tones 



with the milder ascending tones of still another bird 

 — the nightingale, perhaps. 



To my mind Beethoven's six notes and others 

 like them of constant recurrence in The Scene by 

 the Brook are remarkably suggestive of the hermit 

 thrush (Turdus aonalaschkce 2Kdlasii\ our most 

 gifted American songster— the prima donna of the 

 orchestra. The notes of this bird always fly upward 

 with bounding emphasis to some extremely high point, 

 and after a short interval these three very high notes 

 ^p succeed, followed by a whispered "wee- 

 6vj^±J- chee-weechee " too attenuated for me to 

 record by musical signs. 



Much has been written about the music 

 of the hermit thrush, but I have found nothing which 

 treats the bird with justice except the remarkably 

 faithful records jotted down by Mr. Simeon Pease 

 Cheney.* It is almost exclusively to this gifted mu- 



* Author of Wood Notes Wild ; he died May 10th, 1890. 



