FIELD AND STUDY 



Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue 

 Thy solitary way?" 



Bryant, by the way, handled natural subjects in a 

 large, free, simple way, which our younger poets 

 never attained. 



When one is fortunate enough to see a line of 

 swans etched upon the sky near sunset, a mile or 

 more high, as has been my luck but twice in my life, 

 one has seen something he will not soon forget. 



The northward movement of the smaller bodies 

 — the warblers and finches and thrushes — gives 

 one pleasure of a different kind, the pleasure of 

 rare and distinguished visitors who tarry for a few 

 hours or a few days, enlivening the groves and or- 

 chards and garden borders, and then pass on. Deli- 

 cacy of color, grace of form, animation of move- 

 ment, and often snatches of song, and elusive notes 

 and calls, advise the bird-lover that the fairy 

 procession is arriving. Tiny guests from Central 

 and South America drop out of the sky like flowers 

 borne by the night winds, and give unwonted inter- 

 est to our tree-tops and roadside hedges. The ruby- 

 crowned kinglet heralds the approach of the pro- 

 cession, morning after morning, by sounding his 

 elfin bugle in the evergreens. 



The migrating thrushes in passing are much more 

 chary of their songs, although the hermit, the veery, 

 and the olive-backed may occasionally be heard. 

 I have even heard the northern water-thrush sing 



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