NATURE AND THE POETS 89 



as his "Pewee." Here we have a glimpse of the 

 catbird : — 



" In the alders, dank with noonday dews, 

 The restless catbird darts and mews;" 



here, of the cliff swallow : — 



" In the autumn, when the hollows 

 All are rilled with flying leaves 

 And the colonies of swallows 



Quit the quaintly stuccoed eaves." 



Only the dates are not quite right. The swallows 

 leave their nests in July, which is nearly three 

 months before the leaves fall. The poet is also a 

 little unfaithful to the lore of his boyhood when he 

 says 



"The partridge beats his throbbing drum " 



in midsummer. As a rule, the partridge does not 

 drum later than June, except fitfully during the 

 Indian summer, while April and May are his favor- 

 ite months. And let me say here, for the benefit 

 of the poets who do not go to the woods, that the 

 partridge does not always drum upon a log; he 

 frequently drums upon a rock or a stone wall, if a 

 suitable log be not handy, and no ear can detect 

 the difference. His drum is really his own proud 

 breast, and beneath his small hollow wings gives 

 forth the same low, mellow thunder from a rock as 

 from a log. Bryant has recognized this fact in one 

 of his poems. 



Our poets are quite apt to get ahead or behind 

 the season with their flowers and birds. It is not 

 often that we catch such a poet as Emerson napping. 

 He knows nature, and he knows the New England 



