210 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Oh ! what a lesson for glory are ye ! 

 How ye preach the grace of humility ! 



" Sweet birds, that breathe the spirit of song, 

 And surround Heaven's gate in melodious throng — 

 Who rise with the earliest beams of day, 

 Your morning tribute of thanks to pay. 

 You remind us likewise that we should raise 

 The voice of devotion and song of praise ; 

 There's something about you that points on high, 

 Ye beautiful tenants of earth and sky !" 



The influence of their notes on the mind of an inva- 

 lid has often been noticed. Miss Graham thus writes 

 in reference to them : — 



" When I lay in bed last summer, unable to speak or 

 move for many hours in the day, the song of the birds 

 furnished me with an inexhaustible source of amusing 

 observation. I could not but feel grateful to the melo- 

 dious Uttle creatures, who beguiled me of half my pain, 

 and made the weary hours of sickness fly away upon 

 wings as light as their own. As if led by an instinctive 

 sympathy, numbers of blackbirds and thrushes came to 

 build their nests round our garden ; and the wood- 

 pigeons, which had been silent the year before, renewed 

 their soft notes in the high trees by the parsonage lawn. 

 However, they were shy, and I thought myself fortu- 

 nate, if once or twice in the day their gentle cooing 

 found its way to my ear. 



