46 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



closely ia the grass and weeds than in the earlier 

 season, though their trills are heard generally through 

 the most of July, in lessened intensity and decreasing 

 frequency. The changed appearance and condition of 

 the meadows after the haying time are accompanied 

 by a transformation equally noticeable in the behavior 

 of the meadow birds. Their former animation of 

 movement and vivacity of manner seem quite foreign 

 to the retiring, skulking disposition discovered after- 

 wards. However, we must resign ourselves to the un- 

 pleasant phases in the characters of our feathered 

 friends, knowing that instinct and external causes 

 operate to prepare them for the annual movement soon 

 to take them from their summer homes. The season 

 of summer bird-life is short and full of incident. Its 

 beginning is courtship and ecstatic song; its continu- 

 ance is tempered joy and accumulating cares ; its ending 

 is silence and seclusion. 



How perfectly typical of our own transient existence in 

 the short span of life, with its gay and happy youth, its 

 moderate joys of the middle period, and its somber wait- 

 ing for the time of departure! 



