The Inspiring Sparrows. 



37 



pr-r 



sider the indifference and ignorance of parents ; but 

 for grown men to persist in hunting for a bird's nest 

 to gratify the whim of a thoughtless and heartless 

 young woman is simply disgusting. 



The overstaying chewink is not so interesting a 

 bird. It seldom chirps and never sings, — that is, I 

 never heard it, — and skulks 

 in the densest tangles of the 

 swamps. Here it has plenty 

 of food and sufficient shelter, 

 and when there is a wealth 

 of winter sun- 

 shine, a grand 

 outpouring of 

 heat that 

 makes the 

 rambler think 

 at once of spring, then the 

 chewink, according to 

 man's views, ought to sing, 

 but the bird thinks differ- 

 ently and does not. Like 

 mankind, however, it loves to kick over 

 the traces occasionally, and once, at least, I was 

 treated to a veritable surprise. Not long since, as I 

 passed along an upland brook, I found the green- 

 brier trembling with merry birds that threaded its 

 mazy tangles. Besides tree-sparrows and snow-birds, 

 there were many fox-colored and white-throated 

 sparrows and several chewinks, and the last, as if 

 moved by the noisy host about them, chirped with 



4 



Foxie 



