WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



rather than instinct, as we popularly use these 

 words; while others are so stupid as to upset all 

 our respect for their faculties of calculation. Both 

 sexes usually help in building the nest, and work 

 industriously at it till it is ready for the eggs — 

 sometimes finishing it even after the female has 

 begun to sit. 



The best-known birds probably are such famous 

 songsters as the nightingale and the skylark; 

 and because these and our canaries are foreign, 

 most persons suppose that we have no equally 

 fine songsters of our own. Let a doubter go into 

 the June woods only once! June is harvest- 

 month for the ornithologist. Then the birds are 

 dressed in their best, are showing off all their good 

 points to their lady-loves, are building their nests, 

 and — being very happy — are in full song. Morn- 

 ing and evening there is such a chorus as makes 

 the jubilant air fairly quiver with melody, while 

 all day you catch the yeap of pygmies in the tree- 

 tops, the chattering and twittering of garrulous 

 sparrows and swallows, and the tintinnabulation 

 of wood-thrushes. I cannot even name all these 

 glorious singers. Perhaps the many-tongued mock- 

 ing-bird stands at the head of the list; possibly 

 the hermit- thrush, whose song is of " serene re^ 



44 



