MY GARDEN ACQUAINTANCE. 17 



heard the bobolink s rival. But his opera-season is a short 

 one. The ground and tree-sparrows are our most constant 

 performers. It is now late in August, and one of the latter 

 sings every day and all day long in the garden. Till within 

 a fortnight, a pair of indigo-birds would keep up their lively 

 duo for an hour together. While I write, I hear an oriole 

 gay as in June, and the plaintive may-be of the goldfinch 

 tells me he is stealing my lettuce-seeds. I know not what 

 the experience of others may have been, but the only bird I 

 have ever heard sing in the night has been the chip-bird. 

 I should say he sang about as often during the darkness as 

 cocks crow. One can hardly help fancying that he sings in 

 his dreams. 



&quot; Father of light, what sunnie seed, 

 What glance of day hast thou confined 

 Into this bird ? To all the breed 

 This busie ray thou hast assigned ; 

 Their magnetism works all night, 

 And dreams of Paradise and light.&quot; 



On second thought, I remember to have heard the cuckoo 

 strike the hours nearly all night with the regularity of a 

 Swiss clock. 



The dead limbs of our elms, which I spare to that end, 

 bring us the flicker every summer, and almost daily I hear 

 his wild scream and laugh close at hand, himself invisible. 

 He is a shy bird, but a few days ago I had the satisfaction 

 of studying him through the blinds as he sat on a tree 

 within a few feet of me. Seen so near and at rest, he 

 makes good his claim to the title of pigeon-woodpecker. 

 Lumberers have a notion that he is harmful to timber, 

 digging little holes through the bark to encourage the 

 settlement of insects. The regular rings of such perfora 

 tions which one may see in almost any apple-orchard seem 

 to give some probability to this theory. Almost every 

 season a solitary quail visits us, and, unseen among the 

 currant-bushes, calls Bob White, Bob White, as if he were 

 playing at hide-and-seek with that imaginary being. A 



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