MINOR SONGSTERS. 183 



red-winged blackbird, indeed, has some really 

 praiseworthy notes; and to me — for personal 

 reasons quite aside from any question about its 

 lyrical value — his rough cucurree is one of the 

 very pleasantest of sounds. For that matter, 

 however, there is no one of our birds — be lie, 

 in technical language, " oscine " or " non-oscine " 

 — whose voice is not, in its own way, agreeable. 

 Except a few uncommonly superstitious people, 

 who does not enjoy the whip-poor-will's trisyl- 

 labic exhortation, and the 7/ak of the night- 

 hawk ? Bob White's weather predictions, also, 

 have a wild charm all their own, albeit his 

 persistent No more wet is often sadly out of ac- 

 cord with the farmer's hopes. We have no more 

 untuneful bird, surely, than the cow bunting ; 

 yet even the serenades of this shameless polyg- 

 amist have one merit, — they are at least amus- 

 ing. With what infinite labor he brings forth bis 

 forlorn, broken-winded whistle, while his tail 

 twitches convulsively, as if tail and larynx were 

 worked by the same spring ! 



The judging, comparing spirit, the conscien- 

 tious dread of being ignorantly happy when a 

 broader culture would enable us to be intelli- 

 gently miserable, — this has its place, unques- 

 tionably, in concert halls ; but if we are to make 

 the best use of out-door minstrelsy, we must 

 learn to take things as we find them, throwing 



