MUSIC OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 
307 
about to be rent with delight, he again pours forth his 
notes with mere softness and richness than before. He 
now soars higher, glancing around with a vigilant eye, 
to assure himself that none has witnessed his bliss. 
When these love scenes, visible only to the ardent lover 
of nature, are over, he dances through the air, full of 
animation and delight, and, as if to convince his lovely 
mate that to enrich her hopes he has much more love 
in store, he that moment begins anew, and imitates all 
the notes which nature has imparted to the other 
songsters of the grove. 
“ For a while, each long day and pleasant night are 
thus spent; but at a peculiar note of the female he 
ceases his song, and attends to her wishes. A nest is 
to be prepared, and the choice of a place in which to 
lay it is to become a matter of mutual consideration.” 
24 . TUllDUS MIGRA TORUS, WILS. MERULA MIGRATURA', SW. 
THE ROBIN, OR RED-BREASTED THRUSH. 
The male of this species is one of the loudest and 
most delightful of the songsters that frequent the fur 
countries, beginning his chant immediately on his 
arrival. Dr Kicliardson remarks, with great beauty 
and feeling, “ His notes resemble those of the common 
thrush, but are not so loud. Within the arctic circle 
the woods are silent in the bright light of noon-day, 
but towards midnight, when the sun travels near the 
horizon, and the shades of the forest are lengthened, 
the concert commences, and continues till six or seven 
in the morning. Even in these remote regions, the 
mistake of those naturalists who have asserted that the 
feathered tribes of America are void of harmony, might 
be fully disproved. Indeed, the transition is so sudden 
from the perfect repose, the deathlike silence of an 
arctic winter, to the animated bustle of summer ; the 
trees spread their foliage with such magical rapidity, 
and every succeeding morning opens with such agree- 
able accessions of feathered songsters to swell the 
chorus — their plumage as gay and unimpaired as when 
