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BOB WHITE. 



Who's whistling" so cheerfully down in the clover, 



When the meadows are wet with the sweet morning dew? 

 He's piping and calling, this ardent young lover, 



And telling his tale the whole morning through, 

 What is it he savs in the earlv sunlight ? 



' "Bob White! Bob White! 

 Bob— Bob White I" 



At noon, when the day god in wrath has descended, 



With his swift golden arrows, on grain-field and hill ; 

 And the birds of the morning their love songs have ended, 



Then deep in the wood, and down by the rill 

 I hear a shrill whistle, so cheerful and bright : 

 "Wheat ripe? Bob White! 

 Not — not quite !" 



When shadows of evening are lengthening slowly. 



Ere the night dews lie damp on the meadows again ; 

 As light breezes sweep o'er the soft grass so lowly. 



What is it he says ? I hear the refrain, 

 While in the thick verdure he's hid from my sight: 

 "Good night ! Bob White ! 

 Good — good night." 



Effie L. Hallett. 



It might almost be said that the birds 

 are all birds of the poets and of no 

 one else, because it is only the poetical 

 temperament that fully responds to 

 them. So true is this, that all the great 

 ornithologists — original namers and 

 biographers of the birds — have been 

 poets in deed if not in word. Audubon 

 is a notable case in point, who, if he 

 had not the tongue or pen of the poet, 

 certainly had the eye and ear and heart 

 and the singleness of purpose, the en- 

 thusiasm, the unworldliness, the love, 

 that characterize the true and divine 

 race of bards. 



The very idea of a bird is a symbol 

 and a suggestion to the poet. A bird 

 seems to be at the top of the scale, so 

 vehement and intense is his life — large- 

 brained, large-lunged, hot, ecstatic, 

 his frame charged with buoyancy and 

 his heart with song. The beautiful 

 vagabonds, endowed with every grace, 

 masters of all chimes, and knowing no 

 bounds — how many human aspirations 

 are realized in their free, holiday lives, 

 and how many suggestions to the poet 

 in their flight and song ! 



John Burroughs 

 in "Birds and Poets." 



