THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS. 



"yarup." He is an old favorite of my boyhood, and 

 his note to me means very much. He announces 

 his arrival by a long, loud call, repeated from the dry 

 branch of some tree, or a stake in the fence — a thor- 

 oughly melodious April sound. I think how Solomon 

 finished that beautiful climax on spring, " And the 

 voice of the turtle is heard in the land," and see that 

 a description of spring in this farming country, to be 

 equally characteristic, should culminate in like man- 

 ner, — "And the call of the high-hole comes up from 

 the wood." 



It is a loud, strong, sonorous call, and does not 

 seem to imply an answer, but rather to subserve some 

 purpose of love or music. It is " Yarup's " proclama- 

 tion of peace and good-will to all. On looking at the 

 matter closely, I perceive that most birds, not denom- 

 inated songsters, have, in the spring, some note or 

 sound or call that hints of a song, and answers imper- 

 fectly the end of beauty and art. As a "livelier iris 

 changes on the burnished dove," and the fancy of the 

 young man turns lightly to thoughts of his pretty 

 cousin, so the same renewing spirit touches the " silent 

 singers," and they are no longer dumb ; faintly they 

 lisp the first syllables of the marvelous tale. Witness 

 the clear, sweet whistle of the gray-crested titmouse, 

 — the soft, nasal piping of the nuthatch, — the amo- 

 rous, vivacious warble of the bluebird, — the long, rich 

 note of the meadow-lark, — the whistle of the quail. — 

 the drumming of the partridge, — the animation and 



