20 PLEASURES OF ORNITHOLOGY. 



Bright in his elegance, amid our shades, 



Occasionally wanders when the sun 



Rides in his summer glory and invites 



The birds to follow from the fervid south. 



The swift Hirundinids (*) of twittering note, 



Shall come to greet your dwellings, while the Raili^y 



The Caprimulgid C^) with his humming wheel. 



Shall aid to fill the group and crown the spring. 



But now the hollow blasts of autumn rise ; 

 The sun no more his calorific ray 

 Intense pours o'er the fields, and night, cold night, 

 Transforms to frost-work crystalline the dew ; 

 Our summer guests of melody are gone ; 

 Others on wing to go ; of these the chief 

 Are Swallows who, a seeming conference 

 Or council hold, till on some favouring breeze 

 They upward soar, and southward wing their way. 



As frown the brumal heralds, lo ! they come. 

 From hyperborean, Scandinavian climes, 

 A far more hardy and enduring race. 

 Surcharged their plumage with a mucous oif ; 

 Well cloath'd to cope with tempest and with sea, 



C) Hirundinids^ birds of the Swallow tribe. — (^) Rallus 

 crex, — (3) Caprimulgus Eurapxus, or Goat-sucker. 



