12 INTRODUCTION. 



the Cuckoo's voice, thinks not of his boyhood, when, 

 thoughtless of time's passing wing, he has stopped 

 by the wayside, and watched her building her nest? 

 Who that hears the song of the Blue-bird and Lin- 

 net, finds not in their sweet notes a tie that binds to 

 his heart some memory of the past? and is ready to 

 exclaim : 



"And I can listen to thee yet 



And lie upon the plain ; 

 And listen till I do beget 

 That golden time again." 



Birds are ever around us : their busy active life 

 displays itself wherever we turn our steps : even at 

 those seasons when most species have retired to the 

 sunny south, a few still remain to cheer our hearts 

 and enliven our homes. But it is in the spring and 

 summer that we become most familiar with these 

 feathered tenants of the air. When the clouds of 

 winter, and its lowering storms, have rolled them- 

 selves behind the hills, when the sun shines out 

 with renewed warmth and vigor, and the softened 

 breath of Heaven wafts from the flowery fields and 

 leafy woods a pleasing fragrance, the Blue-bird, the 

 Song Sparrow, and the Robin, with thousands of lovely 

 comrades, fresh from their winter haunts, come again 

 to cheer us with a welcome music. The Swallows 

 twitter gaily as they sail over the meadows; the 

 Wren, perched upon a neighboring twig, sings to his 

 mate while she turns from her accustomed. 'box the 

 remains of last year's nest; the busy little Warblers 



