THE PERCHING BIRDS. 127 



and Thoreau has fixed the bird's song securely in our 

 lasting literature, saying of these birds as he heard 

 them near Concord, " and the meadow is all bespat- 

 tered with melody." Their history is a short story : 

 they winter in the south, and coming north in 

 spring, scatter over the country, nesting for the most 

 part in New England and beyond ; but a good many 

 hang back when they reach the Middle States and 

 are here all summer. Then the males are black and 

 white, or appear so, and are full of song. Certainly 

 of a bright May morning it is worth a long walk to 

 hear them. This song as summer wanes dwindles 

 to a mere " chink," but this is clear, metallic, and 

 when uttered while the bird is flying high overhead 

 can be heard for a long distance. By the close of 

 summer, too, there is another change, and the bright 

 black-and-white suit is changed to a yellow-brown 

 one ; and now the birds southward bound are bobo- 

 links no longer, but reed-birds until they reach the 

 Carolinas, and then they are rice-birds. The poetry 

 is all gone when the birds come back in August : 

 they have left their music behind them, and are now 

 so prosy that the melody of May mornings is for- 

 gotten and we are ready to eat the little fellows. It 

 is hard to imagine any one cruel enough to harm a 

 bobolink in May, but it is more difficult to imagine 

 any one capable of resisting in September a reed-bird 

 upon toast. 



The Cow-bird, which is perhaps best known as 

 Sheep Blackbird and sometimes as Cow-bunting, is a 

 curious creature. The male bird is bronzed and dark 

 blue, and has some animation when it bubbles over 



