NATURE'S CAROL SINGERS. 



THE YELLOW HAMMER. 



WHO does not know 

 this almost universally 

 distributed bird in our 

 country, with its dress 

 of almost canary -like 

 yellow, streaked with 

 brown, and short though 

 oft-repeated song ? On 

 furze-clad commons, 

 along cultivated hedge- 

 rows, and on railway embankments close 

 to busy London town, and in far-away 

 parts of the country alike, it may be heard 

 morning, noon, and night persistently 

 going over its familiar notes, which always 

 seem to me to accord best with the 

 drowsiness of a hot summer's day. In- 

 deed, I must confess that at such times 

 its reiteration has sent me to sleep. 



It has been variously represented by 



the characters of the alphabet, as the 



following examples will show : tic-tic- 



tic-e-ereze, te, te, te, te, te y te, twyee, chick, 



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