32 BIRD-SONGS ABOUT WORCESTER. 



smile, suffused with the rays of the rising 

 sun. On rainy days the birds will often 

 sing all day long, and then their morning 

 and vesper hymns receive less attention. 

 But the best time of all to hear bird-songs 

 is after a storm, when the clouds have 

 cleared away and the sun shines bright 

 again. Then the pent-up feelings of our 

 feathered songsters find expression in the 

 choicest and most ecstatic melody. Windy 

 days are not so favorable to the study of 

 bird-songs, and, generally speaking, the 

 birds sing much more freely in warm 

 weather that in cold. 



Yesterday my walk took me out Lincoln 

 Street to the little strip of woods west of 

 Adams Square, — a favorite haunt of mine, 

 and one of the best and most accessible 

 regions in this vicinity for bird-music. As 

 I had expected, I found all the birds in 

 full song, — robins, pigeon-woodpeckers, 

 bluebirds, song, vesper, field, and chip- 

 ping sparrows. The vesper and field 

 sparrows were unusually abundant and 

 musical, and there had evidently been a 



