328 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [14:8— Nov., 1918 



and it is Riley who bids you to sing with "every bird on every 



bough," 



"Sing! every living loving thing — 

 Sing any song, and any how 

 But Sing, Sing, Sing!" 



In the poem the "Song O' Cheer", Riley tells of the hearing of 



cooing mournful notes of birds — that are not to be echoed by 



the heart. 



". . . Whipperwills and doves says I 

 H'aint over cheery critters," 



There is laughter in the sunshine and the gay whistling of the 

 birds and for the cheer giving critters, he gives Old Bob White 

 and the Pee-Wees and the chattering of the blackbirds. 



"Old Bob White 



Whistles his name in high delight 



And whirrs away". 



"Pee-wees' singing, to express 

 My opinion's second class 

 Yet you'll hear 'em more er less; 

 Sapsucks gittin' down to biz, 

 Weedin' out the lonesomeness. 



"Mr. Bluejay, full o' sass 

 In them base ball clothes o' his" 



Oh, the naughtiness of the birds as they scold and boss and beg 



in Riley's verse of bird song. 



"The flicker on the fence-rail 'pears to jest spit on his wings 

 And roll up his feathers, by the sassy way he sings:" 



"You can hear the blackbirds jawin' as they foller up the plow." 



"Ketch a shadder down below, 

 And lookin' up to find the crow — 

 Er a hawk, away up there 

 'Pearantly froze in the air." 



The haunts of the birds are every where and the eye can take 

 delight in Riley's flight of birds, in the moving bits of color, of 

 which he gives word pictures. 



"Watch the swallers skootin' past 

 Bout as purt as you could ast 

 Er the Bob-white raise and whiz 

 Where some other's whistle is." 



"Where the 'red-heads' hopped awry 

 And the buzzard 'raised' in the 'clearing' sky." 



"And through the lush glooms of the thicket 

 The flash of the red bird's wings." 



