90 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



Burroughs the hymnhke quaUty of the hermit's song 

 which he so often mentions. I must quote what he 

 says : " A strain has reached my ears from out the 

 depths of the forest that to me is the finest sound in 

 nature — the song of the hermit thrush. ... It ap- 

 peals to the sentiment of the beautiful in me, and 

 suggests a serene religious beatitude as no other 

 sound in nature does. It is perhaps more of an 

 evening than a morning hymn, though I hear it at 

 all hours of the day. It is very simple, and I can 

 hardly tell the secret of its charm. ' O spheral, 

 spheral ! ' he seems to say ; ' holy, holy ! clear 

 away, O clear away ! ' interspersed with the finest 

 trills and the most delicate preludes." 



But this is the sentiment of the song ; what of the 

 song itself ? That I can only describe with musical 

 annotations. There is first a prolonged tone, prob- 

 ably A ; this is succeeded by another shorter one a 

 third above, another a fifth above, and still another 

 an octave above the A. Interspersed are several very 

 short notes, which are undoubtedly some of Bur- 

 roughs's " fine trills and delicate preludes." Here is 

 the music: ^^^ ^ ^ ^,_^ ^ But we will 



notice that 

 not end 



with the high 

 note ; there are still three more which glide down- 

 ward, finishing at the original A ; these have that 



