14 PLEASURES OF ORNITHOLOGY. 



That to the breath of Zephyr undulates ; 

 And from rude blasts a kind protection yields 

 To many a tender flower, — the garden's pride. 

 In vest of humble brown, YE may behold 

 A gentle Sylviad cowering o'er her nest 

 Of simple neatness — eggs of fairest blue. 

 The while her mate, on yonder pensile bough. 

 His matin song preludes ; what need to name 

 The/fe£/5fe-*S>parrow,(^) bird well known and save by boy; 

 Rapacious, rarely touched by tyrant man? 



But see ! a spoiler comes, without whose note 

 No spring would seem; nor would the maiden rove, 

 In May-time pleas'd, the solitary dell, 

 Without that well-known note, although with him 

 "Who all her soul commands, — associate power 

 Of Nature ! Yes, a note that with delight 

 The morning wakes, as from the lofty elm 

 The CuckooC) sends the monotone. Yet he, 

 Polygamous, ne*er knows what pleasures wait 

 On pure monogamy ; nor doth his slave 

 A domicile prepare her callow brood 

 To nurture, but, with occupancy rude, 



( ') Sylvia modularis. — (^) Cuculus canorus. 



