Sable Singers and Weird Love-songs 81 



he is now engaging a couple of hundred yards further up 

 the hill. 



Then see that pair of Rooks sedately walking over the 

 bents, one perceptibly bigger than the other. They move 

 with slow and solemn steps a few yards apart, till the larger 

 bird, finding some tit-bit, calls proudly to his lady to come 

 and take it. This she does with shuffling wings and 

 querulous cry, in mimicry of a young bird being fed, and 

 while she is devouring the morsel, with the utmost apparent 

 disregard of the emotions of her gallant cavalier, he struts 

 around with spreading tail, and trailing, half-opened wings, 

 cawing his approval and entreating her to enjoy the food 

 he has provided. He is her most devoted servant, but at 

 the same time would call her attention to the perfection of 

 his spotless attire, the sheen on his glossy blue-black coat, 

 and the fashionable cut of his loose-fitting pantaloons. 

 Evidently he prides himself on the curves of his bill, too, 

 and the white-by-contrast ruffles round his face and throat. 

 The love-song that he is pouring forth the while is hardly 

 loud enough to be audible at this distance, but, when heard, 

 is one that always strikes us more from the grotesque 

 display with which it is delivered than from any compass 

 it may possess a series of odd creaks and chuckles, emitted 

 in a subdued voice, punctuated here and there with a louder 

 caw, caw, that is all ; but yet it serves its purpose. Like 

 Robbie Burns's shepherd laddie, he is confessing that his 

 heart is in a flame, and to properly attuned ears his lilt 

 is as sweet as the most dulcet notes ever trilled by Nightin- 

 gale to a summer's night. 



On the slender top of the highest silver fir, at the corner 

 of the plantation yonder, sits another sable singer whose 

 hoarse chant scarcely sounds to our ear like one of love. 

 Yet could we interpret it rightly it would be found instinct 

 with just the same feeling as that which breathed over 

 another bride who was black but comely in the days of old. 

 As Crows pair for life, it might, perhaps, be more exact 

 to describe the present ditty as a chronicle of the virtues, 

 old and new, of which the singer has found the well-tried 

 partner of his joys and woes to be possessed, rather than of 



6 



