Earliest Signs of Spring 
Continuing his ramble, our traveller will next 
hear, perhaps, the sputtering and spilling at the 
mouth of an excited gathering of purple 
grackles, from the summit of a clump of trees— 
an ill-trained rabble of March trumpeters, pro- 
ducing a hubbub, spicy and not unpleasing ata 
distance ; but close at hand abounding in such 
idle gossip, spiteful criticism, and sour morality, 
as would do credit to a flourishing country tea- 
party of old ladies. The goldfinch, downy 
woodpecker, red- winged blackbird, meadow 
lark, flicker, purple finch, phoebe, cow-bird, 
and field-sparrow, will quite likely add some 
rich and varied grains of sound to all the 
morning’s medley; possibly even the wild 
screams of the hawks should be attributed to a 
helpless ambition to be musical; and before 
the walk is ended he will surely hear that 
carol, familiar, and yet never growing old, and 
crowning all—the clear-toned, satisfying, and 
uplifting warble of a joyous robin. 
The restfulness and stimulus of Nature, 
which every attentive observer experiences in 
out-door life, consists as largely in the easy and 
unpremeditated alternation, and ever-fresh set- 
ting of such familiar objects, as in their intrin- 
sic excellence. These earliest spring - sounds, 
a 
