CHAPTEE XII. 



OUR BIRDS IN GENERAL. 



THE Duke of Argyll lately illustrated most forcibly 

 the truth of the saying that " a little learning is a dan- 

 gerous thing," when he wrote disparagingly of the vocal 

 powers of American birds. Had he been with me one 

 spring-like April morning of the past year and heard the 

 "burst of song," lasting from sunrise until high noon, 

 to which I listened, his want of appreciation of our birds 

 would have been changed, I doubt not, to enthusiastic 

 admiration. 



For several days the birds had been arriving, one or 

 more kinds at a time, but it was not until the 29th of 

 the month that the summer birds had arrived in full 

 force. The brown and the wood thrush, the cat-bird, the 

 bobolink, and the two species of oriole, the three wrens, 

 and a host of other merry warblers were here on that 

 day, each in full song, and congregating" in their several 

 haunts they united in giving a ringing welcome to the 

 coming summer. "What with the added voices of our 

 winter birds, the lark, the sparrows, and the gay cardinal, 

 there was nothing wanting in the songs they sang no 

 check to the melody of their choral greeting. Amid the 

 bright surroundings of the young leaves, through which 

 the trembling sunbeams danced in glee, these feathered 

 choristers charmed alike the eye and ear, and I listened 



