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Anon Spring deepens into Summer ; the sun 

 ascends higher in the heaven ; the day lengthens 

 and the heat strengthens ; nature is robed in lux- 

 uriance of verdure ; the storm-vexed ocean sleeps 

 like a lake ; the air murmurs with exulting in- 

 sects ; and, bush and brake, as " hymning their 

 great God," send forth the voice of melody. 



But as June melts into July, the music of the 

 groves makes a pause, or is left almost to the 

 wren and a few tiny companions, the yellow- 

 hammer being among the last of the minstrels 

 which forsakes the twig to take to its nest, 

 where now lie its eggs, figured with irregular 

 scratches, as if artificially marked with a pen. 



Even in this successive nidification of the sing- 

 ing birds, the wonderful regulations of Supreme 

 wisdom are visible. Not only is provision made 

 for the continuance of the harmony which enli- 

 vens glen and grove, the sunny glade and the 

 gloomy forest, but a certainty is given of the pa- 

 rent birds procuring food adapted for their young. 

 Thus the yellow-hammer, which I may adduce 

 in illustration, takes so late to the building of its 

 nest, because its young are nourished principally 

 on those seeds which nature profusely affords at 

 this period, and not earlier ; while the rook, ac- 

 tuated by a similar instinct, hatches in April, 

 when the turning up of the soil affords abundance 

 of grubs and worms, which could not be found 

 at a later season, and when this source fails, the 

 common chafer affords a long supply. The black- 

 birds and thrushes breed early ifor the same rea- 



