50 BIRD-SONGS. 



heard-of, and is even mistaken for a grasshop- 

 per. 



How true it is that the very things which 

 dishearten one nature and break it down, only 

 help another to find out what it was made for ! 

 If you would foretell the development, either 

 of a bird or of a man, it is not enough to know 

 his environment, you must know also what 

 there is in him. 



We have possibly made too much of the sa- 

 vanna sparrow's innocent eccentricity. He fills 

 his place, and fills it well ; and who knows but 

 that he may yet outshine the skylark ? There 

 is a promise, I believe, for those who humble 

 themselves. But what shall be said of species 

 which do not even try to sing, and that, not- 

 withstanding they have all the structural pecul- 

 iarities of singing birds, and must, almost cer- 

 tainly, have come from ancestors who were 

 singers? We have already mentioned the 

 house sparrow, whose defect is the more mys- 

 terious on account of his belonging to so highly 

 musical a family. But he was never accused of 

 not being noisy enough, while we have one 

 bird who, though he is classed with the oscines, 

 passes his life in almost unbroken silence. Of 

 course I refer to the waxwing, or cedar-bird, 

 whose faint, sibilant whisper can scarcely be 

 thought to contradict the foregoing description, 



