144 BIRDS AND BIRDS. 



day contentment, and the nocturn of the mocking- 

 bird for love. Then there are the plaintive singers, 

 the soaring, ecstatic singers, the confident singers, 

 the gushing and voluble singers, and the half -voiced, 

 inarticulate singers. The note of the pewee is a 

 human sigh, the chickadee has a call full of unspeak- 

 able tenderness and fidelity. There is pride in the 

 song of the tanager, and vanity in that of the cat- 

 bird. There is something distinctly human about the 

 robin ; his is the note of boyhood. I have thoughts 

 that follow the migrating fowls northward and south- 

 ward, and that go with the sea-birds into the desert of 

 the ocean, lonely and tireless as they. I sympathize 

 with the watchful crow perched yonder on that tree, 

 or walking about the fields. I hurry outdoors when 

 I hear the clarion of the wild gander ; his comrade 

 in my heart sends back the call. 



ii. 



Here comes the cuckoo, the solitary, the joyless, 

 enamored of the privacy of his own thoughts ; when 

 did he fly away out of this brain ? The cuckoo is 

 one of the famous birds, and is known the world 

 over. He is mentioned in the Bible, and is discussed 

 by Pliny and Aristotle. Jupiter himself once as- 

 sumed the form of the cuckoo in order to take advan- 

 tage of Juno's compassion for the bird. 



We have only a reduced and modified cuckoo in 

 this country. Our bird is smaller, and is much more 

 solitary and unsocial. Its color is totally different 



