PLEASURES OF ORNITHOLOGY. 23 



ThoUf who in mystic musings seek'st delight, 

 Or warblest for the ** wretched" such high song 

 As ever in the vallies of the earth 

 Shall echo ? — Hither haste, ye potent Bards ! 

 Ye masters of the soul— of love, of truth, 

 Lest such an humble advocate should fail 

 How just soe'er the question ! 



Turn YE now 

 Where glows with fiercer ray the Tropic sun- 

 Where vegetation her profusion pours 

 From ample cornucopia, and invites 

 All animate creation to partake. 

 Nor slow the Birds to accept the proffer'd boon — 

 A rich repast of berries or of fruit — 

 From Palm or Pine, the Coco's laden arms — 

 Or Indian fig*, the glory of the East. 

 The sea too yields her store; and many an egg 

 Of Crocodile or Tortoise from the sand 

 Evolves the Vulturid (0 then holds his feast. 



Here too in music the wild woods abound, 

 Despite of Caprimulgid's (*} grating note, 



* Ficus Indicoy or Banyan-tree. 



(') VuUuridj a bird of the Vulture tribe. — (*) CaprimuJgiJ, 

 a bird of the Goat-sucker tribe. 



