LOVELY MORNING. 105 



" Day had awakened all things that be, 

 The lark and the thrush, and the swallow free," 



and that my party was already assembled ; one 

 or two cardinals or redbirds, as they are 

 often called on the -grass, with the usual at- 

 tendance of English sparrows, and the red- 

 headed woodpecker in the elm, surveying the 

 lawn, and considering which of the trespassers 

 he should fall upon. It was the work of one 

 minute to get into my wraps and seat myself, 

 with opera glass, at the wide-open window. 



My first discovery made, however, during the 

 blackbird reign, was that four o'clock is the 

 most lovely part of the day. All the dust of hu- 

 man affairs having settled during the hours of 

 sleep, the air is fresh and sweet, as if just made ; 

 and generally, just before sunrise, the foliage is 

 at perfect rest, the repose of night still linger- 

 ing, the world of nature as well as of men still 

 sleeping. 



The first thing one naturally looks for, as 

 birds begin to waken, is a morning chorus of 

 song. True bird-lovers, indeed, long for it with 

 a longing that cannot be told. But alas, every 

 year the chorus is withdrawing more and more 

 to the woods, every year it is harder to find a 

 place where English sparrows are not in posses- 

 sion ; and it is one of the most grievous sins of 

 that bird that he spoils the song, even when he 



