THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS. 37 



songsters of the seed-time are silent at the reaping of 

 the harvest. Other minstrels take up the strain. It 

 is the heyday of insect life. The day is canopied with 

 musical sound. All the songs of the spring and sum- 

 mer appear to be floating, softened and refined, in the 

 upper air. The birds, in a new, but less holiday suit, 

 turn their faces southward. The swallows flock and 

 go ; the bobolinks flock and go ; silently and unob- 

 served, the thrushes go. Autumn arrives, bringing 

 finches, warblers, sparrows, and kinglets from the 

 North. Silently the procession passes. Yonder" hawk, 

 sailing peacefully away till he is lost in the horizon, 

 is a symbol of the closing season and the departing 

 birds. 



