HABITS OF BIRDS. 17 



HABITS OF BIRDS. 



He who pays attention to the various motions of the 

 feathered tribes, at all seasons, will find that the habits 

 of birds can be most readily studied in early morning 

 and evening. For 'tis then these feathered creatures are 

 the most active, sing the loudest and in the greatest 

 numbers, and 'tis then they are much, very much, more 

 full of life than at any other time of the day. Many 

 birds, the Thrushes for instance, procure the greater 

 part of their food at these times ; while others seldom 

 leave their fastnesses except for a few hours in the 

 morning and evening. In the following remarks, penned 

 down at the time of observation, I intend showing a few 

 of the actions of the feathered tribes at these, to the 

 ornithologist, the most interesting times of the day. 



Ye woodlands all, awake : a boundless song 

 Bursts from the groves. 



Gentle reader, I would request thee to let imagination 

 captivate thee, and bear me company, this lovely 

 morning in May, in a stroll amongst Nature's finest 

 ornaments, the feathered tribes. We must set out long 

 before the sun rises over yonder hills if we wish to notice 

 the morning actions of the Robin, Wren, Thrushes, or 

 other early birds. Just as the sky grows gray we hear the 

 Rooks, the earliest moving birds, cawing solemnly from 

 the tops of the nesting-trees ; a little later a Robin is 



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