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TRANSACTIONS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILL. 273 



laughing little lay of the warbling vireo among the groves and scattering 

 trees about our houses. Even the white-rumped shrike, half brother of 

 the butcher-bird, attempts a love warble in April and May. 



The starlins^s and orioles are a family of minstrels. The bobolink — 

 merriest hearted of all our birds — circles and sings above the meadows. 

 The red-winged blackbird calls uncle lee .' uncle lee I about the swamps, 

 and the cow bunting has a gurgle which " sounds like pouring water out 

 of a glass jug." The meadow lark hovers across the fields, drops on the 

 top twigs of the scattering trees, and sings his full, rich note, e-chee-a- 

 cJdp-pa I He often sings on the wing, and while walking about on the 

 ground. The gay Baltimore oriole has a rich, emphatic song, tie-a-ru, 

 co-tie-a-ru .' and the orchard oriole a rather higher-keyed strain, but 

 very agreeable. 



Some of the warbler family are sweet singers. The scarlet tanager 

 has one of the richest melodies of the woods, and the black-throated 

 green-back one of the purest. 



The wrens are lively little creatures, full of sudden outjiouring song. 

 A house wren of my acquaintance last season sang to his mate nearly all 

 summer about a witcha watcha witcha widow .' 



Many of our birds outside of the Oscines, or true singers — birds fur- 

 nished with special throat muscles — make very pleasant music. Nothing 

 can be more cheerful than the bob-white .' of the quail, and the phe-be I 

 pcwe-it ! of the common pewee. Few sounds are more agreeable than 

 the notes of the whip-poor-will in the darkness, and those of the cuckoo 

 at a distance. 



The night singing of birds is especially attractive, A good many of 

 our birds, which are usually, only day singers, tune up in the night in the 

 season of mating and nesting. My own night rambles have been well 

 repaid in bird songs. In the moonlight nights of May, and sometimes 

 June, the cat-bird is wild with delight. All along the banks of the creeks 

 and rivers, and from the swamps, rises the strain, far purer and sweeter 

 than by day. He tells, in a fine poetic way, to the night wind and the 

 stars, that his mate is sitting under the leaves on four emerald eggs. 

 Sometimes the tanager calls, or the water thrush sings one sudden, happy 

 strain, and then is still. Once I heard the oven bird sing .something 

 quite different from the shrill little lay which does duty as his day song. 

 It was a glad burst of sweetness, with the usual notes, softened and en- 

 riched, as its center-piece. Occasionally, on May nights, the voice of 

 the meadow-lark rises from the lowlands, and from his perch among the 

 vine-tangled shrubs the Maryland yellow-throat repeats his lively chip-cr-a 

 chip-er-a chip-er-a chip! In June, the cuckoo sings almost as much by night 

 as by day ; and one may sometimes hear, at long intervals, the pathetic 

 pe-we-o-wee .' of the wood pewee, and the emphatic peacha-pe-a of the 

 acadican fly-catcher. The whip-poor-will overlaps his night of melody 

 onto the evening and morning songs of the thrushes. The song sparrow, 

 the field sparrow and the black-throated bunting often sing at night in 

 the season of incubation. 



The song of the bird is his chief attainment, from an aesthetic stand- 

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