10 THE RETURN OF THE BfRDS. 



awakening of Robin, for he has been awake 

 some weeks, but with the universal awaken- 

 ing and rehabilitation of nature. 



Yet the coming and going of the birds 

 is more or less a mystery and a surprise. 

 We go out in the morning, and no thrush 

 or vireo is to be heard ; we go out again, 

 and every tree and grove is musical; yet 

 again, and all is silent. Who saw them 

 come ? Who saw them depart ? 



This pert little winter-wren, for instance, 

 darting in and out the fence, diving under 

 the rubbish here and coming up yards away, 

 how does he manage with those little cir- 

 cular wings to compass degrees and zones, 

 and arrive always in the nick of time ? Last 

 August I saw him in the remotest wilds of 

 the Adirondacs, impatient and inquisitive 

 as usual ; a few weeks later, on the Potomac, 

 I was greeted by the same hardy little busy- 

 body. Does he travel by easy stages from 

 bush to bush and from wood to wood? or 

 has that compact little body force and cour- 

 age to brave the night and the upper air, and 

 so achieve leagues at one pull ? 



And yonder bluebird with the earth tinge 

 on his breast and the sky tinge on his back, 

 did he come down out of heaven on that 



