THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS. 21 



and grains subdue his tints and soften his 

 voice, and his associating with Robin put a 

 song into his heart ? 



Indeed, what would be more interesting 

 than the history of our birds for the last two 

 or three centuries ? There can be no doubt 

 that the presence of man has exerted a very 

 marked and friendly influence upon them, 

 since they so multiply in his society. The 

 birds of California, it is said, were mostly 

 silent till after its settlement, and I doubt if 

 the Indians heard the wood-thrush as we hear 

 him. Where did the bobolink disport him- 

 self before there were meadows in the North 

 and rice fields in the South ? Was he the 

 same blithe, merry-hearted beau then as 

 now ? And the sparrow, the lark, and the 

 goldfinch, birds that seem so indigenous to 

 the open fields and so averse to the woods, 

 we cannot conceive of their existence in 

 a vast wilderness and without man. 



But to return. The song-sparrow, that 

 universal favorite and firstling of the spring, 

 comes before April, and its simple strain 

 gladdens all hearts. 



May is the month of the swallows and the 

 orioles. There are many other distinguished 

 arrivals, indeed nine tenths of the birds are 



