The Birds' Calendar 



iicss. Its influence is like that of a placid 

 stream, whose gentle current serves to rest 

 rather than arouse the mind. If the song spar- 

 row typifies the morning, the vesper sparrow 

 represents the quiet evening that follows a well- 

 spent day. And yet — so do all nobler moods 

 blend and enhance each other — I have been 

 hardly less pleased with the gentle serenade of 

 this evening-bird at earliest dawn, through the 

 summer, as it perched on a telegraph wire in 

 front of my window ; while throughout the day, 

 in quiet walks through lane and pasture, it most 

 delightfully punctuates the silence. 



While we are in the mood of humble things, 

 we cannot fail to revert to that unassuming and 

 ever-present summer friend, like a neat and 

 modest weed that thrives in every path — '' the 

 chipper." Without a song, save in its heart, 

 from twig and fence the live-long summer, it has 

 done its best with its one note — its one talent — 

 to bring cheer into the world ; and justice de- 

 mands that it be judged by its effort rather than 

 by its accomplishment. 



A night and twilight sound that always makes 

 one pause and listen is the call of the whippoor- 

 will, a bird most rarely seen, yet probably famil- 

 iar to every one by name. By day it lingers in 

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