he sweetest songsters of
the wood are unknown to the mass of the community, while many very
ordinary performers, whose talents are conspicuous, are universally
known and admired.

As we advance into the wood, if it be near mid-day, or before the
decline of the sun, the notes of two small birds will be sure to attract
our attention. These notes are very similar, and as slender and piercing
as the chirp of a grasshopper, being distinguished from the latter only
by a different and more pleasing modulation. The birds to which I refer
are the Red Start (_Muscicapa ruticilla_) and the Speckled Creeper
(_Sylvia varia_). The first is the more rarely seen of the two, being a
bird of the deep forest, and shunning observation by hiding himself in
the most obscure parts of the wood. In general appearance, and in the
color of his plumage, he bears a resemblance to the Ground-Robin, though
not more than half his size. He lives entirely on insects, catching them
while they are flying in the air.

His song is similar to that of the Summer Yellow-Bird, so common in our
gardens among the fruit-trees, but it is more shrill and feeble. The
Creeper's song does not differ from it more than the songs of different
individuals of the same species may differ. This bird may be seen
creeping like a Woodpecker around the branches of trees, feeding upon
the grubs and insects that are lodged upon the bark. He often leaves the
forest, and may be seen busily searching the trees in the orchard and
garden. The restless activity of the birds of this species affords a
proof of the countless myriads of insects that must be destroyed by them
in the course of one season,--insects which, if not kept in check by
these and other small birds, would multiply to such an extreme as to
render the earth uninhabitable by man.

While listening with close attention to the slender notes of either of
the last-named birds, often hardly audible amidst the din of
grasshoppers, the rustling of leaves, and the sighing of winds among the
tall oaken boughs, suddenly the wood resounds with a loud, shrill song,
like the sharpest notes of the Canary. The bird that startles one with
this vociferous note is the Oven-Bird, (_Turdus aurocapillus_), or
Golden-Crowned Thrush. It is the smallest of the Thrushes, is confined
exclusively to the wood, and when singing is particularly partial to
noon-day. There is no melody in his song. He begins rather low,
increasing in loudness as he pro