APRIL 



A large company of fox-colored sparrows in 

 Heywood's maple swamp close by. I heard their 

 loud, sweet, canary-like whistle thirty or forty rods 

 off, sounding richer than anything else yet ; some 

 on the bushes, singing twee twee twa two, two. ter 

 tweer tweer twa. This is the scheme of it only, 

 there being no dental grit. They were shy, flitting 

 before me, and I heard a slight susurrus where 

 many were busily scratching amid the leaves in 

 the swamp, without seeing L them, and also saw 

 many indistinctly. 



THOKEAU: Early Spring in Massachusetts. 



8 



All along on the south side of this hill, on the 

 edge of the meadow, the air resounds with the 

 hum of honey-bees, attracted by the flower of the 

 skunk-cabbage. I first heard the fine, peculiarly 

 sharp hum of the honey-bee before I thought 

 of them. Some hummed hollowly within the 

 spathe, perchance to give notice to their fellows 

 that the plant was occupied, for they repeatedly 

 looked in and backed out on finding another. . . . 

 Some of these spathes are now quite large and 

 twisted up like cows' horns, not curved over, as 

 usual. Commonly they make a pretty little crypt 

 or shrine for the flower. Lucky that this flower 

 does not flavor their honey. 



THOREAU: Early Spring in Massachusetts. 



