146 YELLOW-BIRD. 



ous amidst the intense severity of the 

 winter, and equally gay beneath the scorch- 

 ing suns of our almost tropical summer, 

 he flits from field to field, and wood to 

 wood, in company with his merry com- 

 panions, a lovely emblem of intense happi- 

 ness! When on the wing, like the far, 

 faint and finely-drawn cadence of an 

 JEolian harp, his notes of conversation 

 are constantly heard, and while sitting on 

 some lowly thistle or devoted lettuce stalk, 

 he talks with a low, sweet, liquid voice to 

 his more humble and less noticed mate. 



In the cage, for which he is readily 

 caught by means of trap-cages, he soon 

 becomes as familiar as the Canary or 

 English Goldfinch, and in that situation 

 his musical notes certainly rival, arid are 

 scarcely surpassed by the sonorous whistle 

 and trill of the former bird. His song is 

 at times gradually elevated, and then 

 softened in the most exquisite manner, 

 bursting in one instant into overpowering 

 melody, in the next dying away in a 



