214 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



ters, he must be charmed by the rippling, rol- 

 lickino: trill of the winter wren. Like the brook 

 which flows through the forest, now underground, 

 now rippling across a patch of sunlight, cold as 

 ice, interrupted by darting trout, so the song of 

 the wren comes, goes, flashes, disappears, rises 

 into bold prominence, is varied by sudden 

 changes and whims, and then ripples off into 

 silence. 



The teachers and preachers among men, who 

 go about dispensing advice as to the way to 

 avoid trouble, are well matched among birds by 

 the vireos. The red-eyed vireo is merely prosy. 

 His mild, tuneless platitudes soon become un- 

 bearable. The yellow - throated and warbling 

 vireos are more effective. They touch the heart 

 by the purity and gentleness of their chiding. 

 But the solitary vireo is needed to play the role 

 of the revivalist. When he sees that arch fiend 

 in feathers, an owl, anathema pervades the 

 neighborhood, and the population is treated to 

 the most effective kind of dogmatic declamation. 

 The bluebird is, however, my favorite reformer. 

 There is a gentleness, a sweet persuasiveness to 

 her discourse, even when a crime-soaked owl is 

 addressed, that is very conducive to neighborly 

 living. 



It is not w^ar-worn veterans who have counter- 

 parts among the birds, but the gay soldiery of 



