April 



warbling vireo, but the tone is far more full and 

 rich than the vireo's. Both the warbling and 

 the red-eyed vireo make one feel that they have 

 not the sweetest temper in the world, but the 

 purple finch is evidently one of the most cor- 

 dial and good-natured of creatures. 

 Now, too, 



" The swallow skims the river's wat'ry face, 

 The frogs renew the croaks of their loquacious race ; " 



the white-breasted swallows being the earliest 

 of the family to appear in spring. They are 

 only about six inches long ; but the wide sweep 

 of the wings and the pure white of the body be- 

 neath make them very conspicuous ; while the 

 lustrous steel-green of the upper side becomes 

 visible when they sail near the ground. There 

 is an ecstasy or intoxication in the flight of the 

 swallows, as a large number of them perform 

 their bewildering and tireless evolutions over 

 stream or lake, that affords one of the most 

 pleasing and animated scenes of inland nature. 

 On the same day as the swallows, came the 

 third warbler, the "yellow-rump," the most 

 abundant in the migrations, and the only one of 

 the family that lingers in this latitude through 

 the winter, although the great majority even of 

 119 



