74 SYLVAN SECRETS. 



ing. Our finest songsters, notable the mock- 

 ing-bird, the cat-bird, and the brown thrush, 

 rarely "tune their throats " before the earliest 

 wild-fiowers bloom. I have noticed that on 

 the coast of the Gulf of Mexico the first song 

 of the mocking-bird is a pretty safe announce- 

 ment of the blowing of the pitcher-plant and 

 the little white daisy in the sandy bogs of the 

 pineries. And the further fact that these 

 plants and the mocking-bird's voice vary in 

 their coming between extremes reaching from 

 the 10th of February to the 15th of March, 

 according to the season, is significant of some 

 fine sympathetic relationship between the 

 vernal impulse and that of the bird's song. I 

 was of the opinion until quite recently that 

 the bird's vocal organs underwent a change, 

 just before the mating season, which specially 

 fitted them for melodious utterances; but 

 many dissections have proved the contrarj^. 

 There is no appreciable organic change in the 

 syrinx, larynx, tongue, or mouth of the mock- 

 ing-bird, the brown thrush, or the cat-bird, in 

 the spring. 



Nearly all the most charming of the singing- 

 birds prefer the early morning and the even- 

 ing twilight for their vocal performances, 

 though some of them sing far in the night. 

 The matin-song of our American robin will 

 convince any one who observes closely that 

 the witchery of the dewy, fragrant day-dawn 

 is the bird's inspiration, and no person who 

 has heard the mocking-bird's dreamy night- 

 lay can doubt that it is a fine expression of 

 the nocturnal influence. The Baltimore ori- 

 ole comes to our Northern States in May, and 

 he comes as if floating down the tide of his 

 own rather monotonously sweet song. For a 

 time he sings from dawn till dark, in a fitful, 



