A Book on Birds 



small Blackbird; is dark in hue and finely 

 speckled; and has a conspicuous white 

 patch about the middle of each wing which 

 looks hke a hole when he is flying. 



He may be identified at once during the 

 first half-hour of twilight by the way he 

 rises in the air in short, quick flights, 

 uttering a piping cry with each, and, 

 having reached an altitude satisfactory 

 to his taste, dives down, either in sport 

 or to capture some gnat he has sighted 

 below — the air rushing through his bristling 

 wings and making a hollow noise as he goes, 

 like that produced by blowing into the open 

 mouth of a bottle. 



The sharp contrast between birds Hke the 

 Night-hawk and the Chimney Swift, who 

 somehow seem unpleasantly transformed 

 as if by the smoke and grime of centers 

 of human habitation, and all the others, 

 like the Thrasher, who suggest nothing but 

 the freshness and beauty of nature, just 

 as it was at the beginning, is always 

 apparent; and it stirs an instant, deeper 

 longing for orchard and meadow and rip- 



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