The Birds' Calendar 



illustrates almost as well as the swan, to which 

 the couplet was originally applied 



" How graceful pride can be, 

 And how majestic, ease." 



Of all the warblers, the one everywhere most 

 familiar and abundant is the summer yellow 

 bird, not found in the deeper woods, but in 

 groves, and orchards, and open land, and unsus- 

 picious enough to haunt the neighborhood of 

 houses. It is richly colored in deep yellow, darker 

 on the wings and back, and finely streaked with 

 brown upon the breast, and would doubtless be 

 eagerly sought for, if it were not so easily found. 

 Its range is very limited, as it is never on the 

 ground, and rarely more than perhaps twelve 

 feet above it, so that its average altitude brings 

 it frequently into the line of vision. On its 

 first arrival in spring the yellow seems purer 

 than subsequently, which is perhaps partly due 

 to its novelty. The voice is sweet, but the 

 song quite simple and with a peculiarly charac- 

 terless ending, like an insipid coda to the red- 

 start's song. At the risk of seeming hypercriti- 

 cal, I must confess that this bird, which to others 



