APRIL 97 
very high. In this drum, or by the aid of it, the 
sound is produced. Generally the note is very feeble 
at first, as if the frost was not yet all out of the 
creature’s throat, and only one voice will be heard, 
some prophet bolder than all the rest, or upon whom 
the quickening ray of spring has first fallen. And 
it often happens that he is stoned for his pains by 
the yet unpacified element, and is compelled literally 
to “shut up” beneath a fall of snow or a heavy 
frost. Soon, however, he lifts up his voice again 
with more confidence, and is joined by others and 
still others, till in due time, say toward the last of 
the month, there is a shrill musical uproar, as the 
sun is setting, in every marsh and bog in the land. 
It is a plaintive sound, and I have heard people 
from the city speak of it as lonesome and depress- 
ing, but to the lover of the country it is a pure 
spring melody. ‘The little piper will sometimes 
climb a bulrush, to which he clings like a sailor to 
a mast, and send forth his shrill call. There is a 
Southern species, heard when you have reached the 
Potomac, whose note is far more harsh and crack- 
ling. To stand on the verge of a swamp vocal with 
these, pains and stuns the ear. The call of the 
Northern species is far more tender and musical.? 
Then is there anything like a perfect April morn- 
ing? One hardly knows what the sentiment of it 
is, but it is something very delicious. It is youth 
and hope. It is a new earth and a new sky. How 
1 The Southern species is called the green hyla. I have since 
heard them in my neighborhood on the Hudson. 
