NATURE AND HER HARMONIES. 19 



Rev. may be called the D'Orsay of Birds, and the tribe of the 

 Tanagers, the Patriarchs of " Turn-coats." Let not the wor- 

 shippers of Fashion be longer stigmatized as nose-led by a 

 Parisian Dandy, or old Federalists, or new light Locofocos, 

 as nasally guided by the savor of "flesh-pots." Here they 

 have far more respectable precedents : their respective orders 

 were no doubt instituted by Nature herself. Should they but 

 consult this candid and ancient Dame, she would, no doubt, 

 recommend to the " Count" the figure of our "Parson," as 

 proper to be introduced into his coat-of-arms, and to the 

 Tory Demagogues that of the Tanagers as proper to the coat- 

 of-arms they see in "yearning dreams." 



Audubon uses a charming phrase in characterizing the en- 

 thusiasm which he found himself giving way to in the de- 

 scription of his feeling on the unexpected consummation 

 of what he considered the triumphant achievement of his 

 life the discovery of the Bird of Washington. He sud- 

 denly fears that he may be considered as " prattling out of 

 fashion !" Well, that is just the thing ! I consider it pe- 

 culiarly felicitous and to the point. 



Though the story may not be particularly savory in some 

 of its associations, I shall even venture, at the risk of such 

 an imputation, to relate one from the reminiscences of my 

 early boyhood concerning those sharp denizens of air, known 

 as " Corvus Americanus" the gentleman in black. 



I once saw some crows feeding on the offal of a late slaugh- 

 tering of domestic animals not far from my father's house. 

 There had been a very deep snow on the ground for some 

 weeks, and the crows had become very ravenous. The place 

 where they fed, was within gun-shot of a cedar-hedge. After 

 firing amongst them once or twice, they all took the alarm, 

 and to my knowledge, never came back again, except one 

 very large, and, I should think, gray-muzzled bird. I noticed 

 that he uniformly seemed to have his eye or nose, it is diffi- 

 cult to tell which, upon me ; for when I would reach my 

 hiding-place, I could see the gentleman make a desperate 



