Songs Without Words 



"merry cheer" 

 opens the concert 

 of bird music. 

 Presently robins, 

 bluebirds, black- 

 birds, and other 

 migrants return- 

 ing from the south 

 in advance of the 

 females, burst into 

 joyous songs of ex- 

 pectancy, every 

 day adding some 

 new minstrel to 

 the choir, until to- 

 ward the end of 

 spring the birds 

 are holding such a 

 May festival as 

 Theodore Thomas 

 never conducted. 

 Late in the merry 

 month nearly 

 every throat that 

 can make music is 

 rippling, whistling 

 and warbling its 

 utmost best; for a 

 bird's season of 

 song usually corre- 

 sponds with its 

 nesting season. Some musicians, it is true, attune 

 their voices long before the courting days, yet in 



135 



n^-siiarruw chooses a conspiciiuus 

 perch for his performance 



