On a summer evening I was caught in the crossfire of dueling wood thrushes, each defending
his portion of the forest. Their chosen weapons were their voices; melodies were their ammunition. Each sought to wound the other's pride, but their sweet fluting pierced only the evening silence.【71】
I doubt that the duelists saw one another, because the wood thrush is content to pour out his nocturne from the middle of a low limb draped by leaves. He needs no approving audience and can project his voice without resorting to a singing perch in the treetop. The brown-backed, speckle-breasted, eight-inch wood thrush only looks drab. All of his beauty is concentrated in his voice. Let the scarlet tanager take the prize as the forest's flashiest dresser. Among his winged brethren, the song of the wood thrush has no equal. He sings more enchantingly than any bird I know.【72】On the trail, I often find myself stopping to admire the wood thrush's gift.
After wintering mainly in Mexico and Central America, wood thrushes return north to breed. The male's echoing melody challenges his rivals, wakes the raccoon and serenades the woodland sojourner. In California they don't hear wood thrushes, which in summer occur only in the eastern forest. It's enough to prevent me from moving West.
【73】While traveling in Europe, John James Audubon got homesick for "the sweet melodious strains of that lovely recluse, my greatest favorite, the Wood Thrush." Henry David Thoreau said, "He touches a depth in me which no other bird's song does," and he called the wood thrush "a Shakespeare among birds."
Ancient magic lives on in the woods.【74】The Pilgrims must have heard it, too, and perhaps the wood thrush comforted them in their wild new world.
The wood thrush's song consists of several phrases, variations on his basic ee-o-lay theme, in quality like a flute but richer, not airy. Each phrase usually concludes with a high-pitched chord. Throaty utterings audible at close range may introduce the next phrase. The song's ending is sometimes marked by a downsliding note that slows and trails off. After a pause, the song is repeated. Occasionally, the wood thrush launches into a series of sustained intonations, a haunting counterpoint to his primary song.
【75】Some are almost mechanical, others merely sweet--the inspired wood thrush sings with a certain soulfulness. He plays his fine vocal instrument with great sweetness, yet there is an undercurrent of sadness. He speaks to me of struggle and survival, of loss and rebirth, and ultimately of hope. He awakens me to the indefinable yearnings that humans and wood thrashes share.
A. A special gene make certain wood thrushes exceptional.
B. Lyrical, liquid and loud, his voice has beauty and depth to match nature's.
C. There is wide variation in the singing ability of wood thrushes.
D. I was moved, but both wood thrushes stood their ground.
E. You can go there and hear what Audubon and Thoreau heard, the same song Native Americans heard in the virgin forest.
F. His singular talent won this common bird the unabashed affection of two of America's foremost naturalists, an artist and a writer.
(71)
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