298 A MONTH'S MUSIC. 



on the right and left. Then, as it grew dark, it grew 

 silent, — except for the hylas, — till suddenly a field 

 sparrow gave out his sweet strain once. After that 

 all was quiet for another interval, till a thrasher from 

 the hillside began to sing. He ceased, and once more 

 there was stillness. All at once the tanager broke 

 forth in a strangely excited way, blurting out his 

 phrase two or three times and subsiding as abruptly 

 as he had commenced. Some crisis in his love-mak- 

 ing, I imagined. Now the last oven-bird launched 

 into the air and let fall a little shower of melody, and 

 a whippoorwill took up his chant afar off. This 

 should have been the end ; but a robin across the 

 meadow thought otherwise, and set at work as if de- 

 termined to make a night of it. Mr. Early-and-late, 

 the robin's name ought to be. As I left the wood the 

 whippoorwill followed ; coming nearer and nearer, 

 till finally he overpassed me and sang with all his 

 might (while I tried in vain to see him) from a tree 

 or the wall, near the big buttonwood. He too is an 

 early riser, only he rises before nightfall instead of 

 before daylight." 





