The Varied Thrushes 
a voice stranger than the sound of any instrument, a waif echo stranding 
on the shores of time. 
There is no sound of the northwestern woods more subtle, more 
mysterious, more thrilling withal, than this passion song of the Varied 
Thrush. Somber depths, dripping foliage, and the distant gurgling of 
dark brown waters are its fitting accompaniments; but it serves, somehow, 
to call up before the mind’s eye the unsealed heights and the untried 
deeps of experience. It is suggestive, elusive, and whimsically baffling. 
Never colorless, it is also never personal, and 
its weird extra-mundane quality reminds one 
of antique china reds, or recalls the subdued 
luridness of certain ancient frescoes. More¬ 
over, this bird can fling his voice at you as 
well from the tree-top as from the ground, 
now right, now left, the while he sits motion¬ 
less upon a branch not fifteen feet above 
you. 
Fantastic and varied as is this single 
note, which is the Thrush’s song, it may be 
fairly^ reproduced by a high-pitched whistle 
combined with a vocal undertone. At least, 
this imitation satisfies the bird, and it is pos¬ 
sible to engage one after another of them in 
a sort of vocal contest in which curiosity and 
jealousy play unquestioned parts. Sometimes 
the Thrush's note is quite out of reach, but 
as often it descends to low pitches; while 
now and then it is flatted, and the resonance 
crowded out of it, with an indescribable effect 
upon the listener, somewhere between ad¬ 
miration and disgust. At other times a trill 
is introduced, which can be taken care of by 
a trained palate, in addition to the vocal 
sound and the whistle. 
This weird strain is, of course, not en¬ 
tirely forgotten in the winter season, when 
the birds deploy through the Southland in 
immense if inconspicuous numbers; but its 
stealthy repetition finds one incredulous, this 
muted blast of Hesperocichla’s 1 horn, when 
it comes from the frivolous mazes of a pep- 
IN THE REDWOOD FOREST: A -TV - , „ . 
HAUNT OF THE VARIED THRUSH Formerly so called. 
