52 THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS. 



quite original, this mode of getting rid of an 

 unworthy opponent, rising to heights where 

 the braggart is dazed and bewildered, and 

 loses his reckoning ! I am not sure but it 

 is worthy of imitation. 



But summer wanes and autumn ap- 

 proaches. The songsters of the seed-time 

 are silent at the reaping of the harvest. 

 Other minstrels take up the strain. It is 

 the heyday of insect life. The day is cano- 

 pied with musical sound. All the songs of 

 the spring and summer appear to be float- 

 ing, softened and refined, in the upper air. 

 The birds in a new, but less holiday suit, 

 turn their faces southward. The swallows 

 flock and go ; the bobolinks flock and go ; 

 silently and unobserved, the thrushes go. 

 Autumn arrives, bringing finches, warblers, 

 sparrows, and kinglets from the North. Si- 

 lently the procession passes. Yonder hawk, 

 sailing peacefully away till he is lost in the 

 horizon, is a symbol of the closing season 

 and the departing birds. 



