THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS. 41 



we are chiefly pleased with the tintinnabula- 

 tion, the verbal and labial excellence, and 

 the evident conceit and delight of the per- 

 former. 



I hardly know whether I am more pleased 

 or annoyed with the cat-bird. Perhaps she 

 is a little too common, and her part in the 

 general chorus a little too conspicuous. If 

 you are listening for the note of another 

 bird, she is sure to be prompted to the most 

 loud and protracted singing, drowning all 

 other sounds ; if you sit quietly down to ob- 

 serve a favorite or study a new-comer, her 

 curiosity knows no bounds, and you are 

 scanned and ridiculed from every point of 

 observation. Yet I would not miss her ; I 

 would only subordinate her a little, make 

 her less conspicuous. 



She is the parodist of the woods, and 

 there is ever a mischievous, bantering, half- 

 ironical undertone in her lay, as if she were 

 conscious of mimicking and disconcerting 

 some envied songster. Ambitious of song, 

 practising and rehearsing in private, she yet 

 seems the least sincere and genuine of the 

 sylvan minstrels, as if she had taken up 

 music only to be in the fashion, or not to be 

 outdone by the robins and thrushes. In 



