A BIRD. ANTHOLOGY FROM LOWELL. 259 
A number of quotations in which the robin figures 
conspicuously have already been given. One more 
occurs to me, —that in which Hosea Biglow 
exclaims, — 
“ Thet ’s robin-redbreast’s almanick ; he knows 
That arter this ther’ ’s only blossom-snows ; 
So, choosin’ out a handy crotch an’ spouse, 
He goes to plast’rin’ his adobé house.” 
But hold! here is still another : — 
“The Maple puts her corals on in May, 
While loitering frosts about the lowlands cling, 
To be in tune with what the robins sing, 
Plastering new log-huts ’mid her branches gray.” 
It can scarcely be hoped to make this anthology 
from Lowell exhaustive, for almost every time I 
turn the leaves of his poetical works I stumble upon 
some reference to the birds before unnoted; but 
this article would be incomplete should one of his 
choicest bits of metrical description, which must 
bring both anthology and book to a close, be 
omitted. It is found in the poem entitled “The 
Nightingale in the Study,” the whole of which must 
be read to catch the drift of its moral teaching. 
The poet doubtless attributes more magnanimity to 
the cat-bird than that carolist is entitled to, — but 
no matter; the Muses cannot be over-precise. 
Here is a charmer : — 
““* Come forth!’ my cat-bird calls to me, 
‘And hear me sing a cavatina 
That, in this old familiar tree, 
Shall hang a garden of Alcina. 
