68 WILD SCENES AND SONGKBIKDS. 



ranting riot of sweet sounds ! I can see the mal-a-pert keep- 

 ing time with his wings, as he goes sideways, dipping up and 

 down, from one apple-tree top to another ! Hear that ! It 

 is the Eain-Crow, croaking for a storm ! Hey-dey ! Jay I 

 jay ! jay ! It is the impish dandy Blue- Jay ! Hear, he has 

 a strange, round, mellow whistle, too ! There goes the little 

 yellow-throated warbler the Wood-Pecker's sudden call 

 the King-Bird's waspish clatter the Dove's low, plaintive 

 coo the little owl's screeching cry and snapping beak the 

 Tom-tit's tiny note the King Fisher's rattle the caw, the 

 scream, the cry of love, of hate, or joy all come rapidly and 

 in unexpected contrasts ; yet with such clear precision, that 

 each bird is fully expressed to my mind in its own individ- 

 uality. 



Thus, all the past of my communion with such creatures, 

 and with each fresh reality of the abounding Earth that I so 

 loved, is made to me as a presence in which I live again. 

 But, then, that wondrous song could speak yet higher music, 

 as the swollen tide rushed, in wilder eddies, yet more tame- 

 less, on ; and then, amongst these hurrying notes I knew, a 

 thousand liquid strains would dart, in play, through and 

 around, to meet them in mysterious whirls of flashing sound. 

 These mystic meanings nature only knew ; my half-awed 

 spirit could but dimly feel them ! Ah ! what calm, delicious 

 hours were those ! Until three o'clock I would lie as one 

 entranced within a dream of harmonies, such as the soul of 

 nature taught old Chaos until he rendered up their notes in 

 form and order, and the world took beauty on. 



At three o'clock the songs would cease, and then my 

 spirit fell as one plunging down from glowing light into the 

 sullen dark. Many, many nights have I thus spent beneath 

 the moon and listening stars, when my good parents thought 

 me safely asleep in my bed. Ah, those songs those night- 

 songs ye can never pass away. 



As yet, I had never obtained a near view of a mocking 

 bird much as I worshipped the creature ; and as to finding 



