io THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS. 



loquacity of the swallows, and the like. Even the 

 hen has a homely, contented carol ; and I credit the 

 owls with a desire to fill the night with music. All 

 birds arc incipient or would-be songsters in the spring. 

 I find corroborative evidence of this even in the crow- 

 ing of the cock. The flowering of the maple is not 

 so obvious as that of the magnolia ; nevertheless, 

 there is actual inflorescence. 



Few writers award any song to that familiar little 

 sparrow, the Socialis ; yet who that has observed him 

 sitting by the wayside, and repeating, with devout atti- 

 tude, that fine sliding chant, does not recognize the 

 neglect ? Who has heard the snow-bird sing ? Yet he 

 has a lisping warble very savory to the ear. I have 

 heard him indulge in it even in February. 



Even the cow-bunting feels the musical tendency, 

 and aspires to its expression, with the rest. Perched 

 upon the topmost branch beside his mate or mates, — 

 for he is quite a polygamist, and usually has two or 

 three demure little ladies in faded black beside him, 

 — generally in the early part of the clay, he seems liter- 

 ally to vomit up his notes. Apparently with much 

 labor and effort, they gurgle and blubber up out of him, 

 falling on the ear with a peculiar subtile ring, as of 

 turning water from a glass bottle, and not without a 

 certain pleasing cadence. 



Neither is the common woodpecker entirely insen- 

 sible to the wooing of the spring, and, like the par- 

 tridge, testifies his appreciation of melody after quite 



