52 INTRODUCTION. 



been for a season unheard, coming to the ear as 

 the greeting of an old acquaintance, and the notes 

 of love, warbled in the simplest strains, or poured 

 forth in deep and full-toned cadence. 



While thus the imprison'd leaves and waking flowers 

 Burst from their tombs, the birds that lurk'd unseen 

 Amid the hybernal shade, in busy tribes 

 Pour their forgotten multitudes, and catch 

 New life, new rapture, from the smile of spring. 

 The oak's dark canopy, the moss-grown thorns, 

 Flutter with hurried pinions, arid resound 

 With notes that suit a forest. 



These remarks may be considered referable 

 more particularly to the incessores of Britain or 

 of Europe. Were we to extend our observations 

 to the inhabitants of other continents, we should 

 enter a field much more varied in the manner in 

 which the allotted offices were performed, and we 

 should find them no less suitably adapted to the 

 very different circumstances of each. They would 

 be, however, mostly inapplicable here, and we 

 shall proceed to the consideration of the British 

 families, endeavouring, as we go along, to point 

 out whatever may be useful or interesting in the 

 economy of each. 



