CHAPTER XVI. 



BIRDS AROUND THE HOUSE. 



ON a beautiful sunny morning, the 16th of May, I am 

 watching the birds and listening to them from my study 

 window. From the apple trees and the currant bushes in 

 the garden comes the voluble and sprightly song of the 

 Common Wren {Troglodytes aedon). Of all the songs of 

 birds within the range of our acquaintance, there is no mel- 

 ody more gushing, more sparkling, more full of the very 

 soul of vital energy, than the warbling, twittering perform- 

 ance of this most active and industrious little creature. If 

 the syllables have not that measured cadence, nor the tones 

 that heart-searching vibration, which move one to melan- 

 choly or to joy, to prayer or to praise, it touches the nerves 

 with a startling impulse, like the gust of the summer wind 

 shaking the leaves, the patter of rain on the roof, or the 

 streaming of sunshine through a rift of the clouds. How 

 much quicker my thoughts move after that trill from the 

 garden wall, and how suggestive is each note of its repeti- 

 tion ! Now he mounts a hitching-post, in full view, in the 

 adjoining church-yard, and the sight of him is almost as 

 animating as his voice. The tail, which drooped during 

 his song, is immediately thrown up and forward as it ceases; 

 he twists and turns upon his nimble feet as if on a swivel 

 or pivot, that can let him up and down and around in every 

 direction ; his sharp bill signals every point of the com- 



