90 LYRISTS OF A SUBURB. 



top when " the dappled dawn doth rise," long 

 before his human rivals think, or even dream, of 

 stirring from their morning slumbers ; all daylong 

 one hears the loud, defiant rhapsody of the indigo 

 bird. The stentorian call of the yellow-winged 

 woodpecker, or flicker, echoes over the fields ; or 

 one sees him beating across the commons to a dead 

 tree at the edge of the woodland, where he is train- 

 ing a brood of young '' high-holders " in the way 

 that they should go — or rather, fly. The ubiqui- 

 tous red-headed woodpecker thrums on a tree, or 

 plays a tune on the ridge of a slate roof. A few 

 catbirds are mysteriously silent, and the brown 

 thrush does not feel at liberty to do his. best. For 

 a couple of months in the spring the meadow larks 

 give concerts on the commons and in the more dis- 

 tant clover field ; and then, after a month or more 

 of silence, may again be heard fluting cheerfully 

 late in September. Bluebirds complain, chipping 

 sparrows and field sparrows trill, song sparrows 

 and grass-finches chant, golden-crowned kinglets 

 Tsip ! and a killdeer plover screams beside a pond 

 near by. 



Beyond the commons before referred to, there is 

 a large field in which clover, timothy and '' white- 

 top " attain a rank growth during the summer, and 



