WAYS OF NATURE 



oftenest at twilight. The song in quality and general 

 cast is like that of its congener, the water-accentor, 

 which, however, I believe is never delivered on the 

 wing. From its habit of singing at twilight, and from 

 the swift, darting motions of the bird, I am inclined 

 to think that in it we have solved the mystery of 

 Thoreau's " night-warbler," that puzzled and eluded 

 him for years. Emerson told him he must beware of 

 finding and booking it, lest life should have nothing 

 more to show him. The older ornithologists must 

 have heard this song many times, but they never 

 seem to have suspected the identity of the singer. 



Other birds that sing on the wing are the meadow- 

 lark, goldfinch, purple finch, indigo-bird, Maryland 

 ♦yellow-throat, and woodcock. The flight-song of 

 the woodcock I have heard but twice in my life. 

 The first time was in the evening twilight about the 

 middle of April. The bird was calling in the dusk 

 "yeap, yeap," or "seap, seap," from the ground, 

 — a peculiar reedy call. Then, by and by, it started 

 upward on an easy slant, that peculiar whistling 

 of its wings alone heard ; then, at an altitude of one 

 hundred feet or more, it began to float about in 

 wide circles and broke out in an ecstatic chipper, 

 almost a warble at times, with a peculiar smacking 

 musical quality; then, in a minute or so, it dropped 

 back to the ground again, not straight down like the 

 lark, but more spirally, and continued its call as be- 

 fore. In less than five minutes it was up again. The 

 4^ 



