Song-Birds in Europe and America 



75 



below the falls] the chorus, or body of song, was not smaller in 

 volume than it is in England * * * These African birds have not 

 been wanting in song ; they have only lacked poets to sing their praises, 

 which ours have had from the time of Aristophanes downward. Ours 

 have had both a classic and a modern interest to enhance their fame. 

 In hot, dry weatJicr, or at midday w/ien the sun is fierce, all are still ; let, 

 however, a good shower fall, and all burst forth at once into merry 

 lays and loving courtship." 



In the eastern United States, however, the true period of bird 

 song is the early morning. The outburst of melody which follows a 

 shower at midday or evening, joyous though it be, is no more to be 

 compared with it than the tuning up of an orchestra with the full 

 performance.* This oratorio of our birds seems to be a serious 

 business with them, as if the observance of a religious duty, — a matin 

 greeting to the orb of day. 



*Not only do our birds sing more vigorously and ioyously in the early morning, but their songs 

 are at that time far more perfect than those heard during full daytime. I find this entry in my 

 note-book : " May 26, 1888. Was awakened about 4.15 a. m. by the song of a Robin, which continued 

 with only momentary pauses, as if for breath, till 4.30 (actual time), when it suddenly ceased and 

 the Catbirds began practicing their pieces. The morning dark and misty, with dense fog covering 

 the lowlands and all out-of-doors thoroughly saturated by the steady drizzling rains of several days 

 past. As heard thus early in the morning, the Robin's song is really worth listening to, being free 

 from those interruptions and harsh interpolations which characterize it at other times." 



YOUNG LEAST FLYCATCHERS AND NEST 

 Photographed roni nature, by P. H. Feabody, in Kittson Co., Minn. 



