for the last weeks of his life for my bird to give me
the most genuine surprise. One day I sat quietly at my desk. The bird
stood on a perch very near my head,--so near I could not turn to look at
him, when, without a moment's hesitation, without an instant's
preliminary practice, he burst out into a glorious, heavenly, perfect
song that struck me dumb and breathless. Not daring to move hand or
foot, yet wanting some record of the wonderful aria, I jotted down, in
the page I was writing, a few of the opening notes; I could re-write my
page, but I could not bear to lose the music. Three times, at intervals
of perhaps one minute, he uttered the same marvelous song, and then I
never heard it again. After all, I had not a record of it, for though it
was deliberate and distinct, at every repetition I was spellbound, and
could not separate it into tones.

Though I should live to be a thousand years old, and visit every country
under heaven, I am sure I should never hear such a rapturous burst of
song again,--

"Low and soft as the soothing fall
Of the fountains of Eden; sweet as the call
Of angels over the jasper wall
That welcomes a soul to heaven."

After the foregoing study was written, Mr. Frederic A. Ober kindly
placed at my disposal his unpublished notes upon another solitaire, the
_siffleur montagne_, or mountain whistler. He had the bird in
confinement for some time, while in the Antilles on a collecting tour
for the United States National Museum; and the bird's character, as
shown in captivity, so closely resembled the one I have tried to depict,
that I give it as evidence that others have similarly interpreted the
manners of the family.

[Sidenote: _LOVE OF SOLITUDE._]

To begin with his love of solitude, one of the strongest characteristics
of the _Myadestes_ wherever found. It is that more than anything else
which, in connection with his wonderful song, has wrapped the bird in
mystery, and aroused the superstitions of the natives of the countries
in which he lives. Mr. Ober says, and every one of the few observers who
have succeeded in seeing the bird confirms the statement, that he is
found only in the most solitary places, inaccessible mountains, wild,
gloomy ravines, and dark, impenetrable gorges. Here the graceful bird
delights to dwell, calling and singing from his post on a branch
overhanging the perpendicular cliffs, hundreds of feet above the level
earth. One of them, indeed, secures hi