INTRODUCTION. 17 



feathered dramatis personce figuring in its verses ; from the 

 tragical histories of " Little Red Riding Hood," and the 

 u Babes in the Woods ; " from the winged and four-footed 

 company of Gay and Lafontaine, from these associates of 

 our childhood to the larks and nightingales of Shakspeare 

 and Milton, we all, as we move from the nursery to the 

 library, gather notions more or less definite. We fancy 

 that we know all these creatures by sight ; and yet neither 

 " Cock Robin," nor his murderer the Sparrow, nor his 

 parson the Rook, is to be found this side the salt sea ; the 

 cunning Wolf whose hypocritical personation of the old 

 grandame, so wrung our little hearts once upon a time, is 

 not the wolf which howled only a few years since in the 

 forests our fathers felled ; the wily Fox of Lafontaine, 

 " Certain renard Gascon, 



D' autres disent ETormand," 



is not the fox of Yankeeland albeit we have our foxea 

 too ! Neither the Marten, 



" The temple-loving martlet, does approve 



By his lov'd mansioning that the heavens breath 



Smells wooingly here. * * * 



-9 **' 



where they 

 " Most breed, and haunt, I have observed the air 



Is delicate ; " 

 nor the nightingale who f 



