T/ie Music-makers. 77 



Would be too short for hijn to utter forth 

 His love-chant, and disburden his full soul 

 Of all its music." 



As a matter of sober fact, the 

 song is not limited to the hours 

 of night. When the hen-bird is 

 brooding upon her eggs, her mate 

 sits by and sings and sings, and 

 sings until one marvels when may 

 come the hour in which he rests 

 and sleeps. Perhaps it may be 

 that between ten o'clock in the 

 morning until three o'clock in the 

 afternoon the stream of melody 

 may grow faint and occasional. 

 But even during those hours I 

 have heard the Italian Nightingales 

 piping as loud and clear as though 

 they had not been singing also 

 throughout the livelong night. 



But to come to more ordinary, and, 

 perhaps, satisfactory songsters, the 

 dear familiar Thrushes and Black- 

 birds have no cranks about climates, 

 nor fancies as to longitudes. They 



