32 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



glad to sink down on the stem of some sturdy 

 young timothy before giving his last burst of 

 song. 



Thoreau gives the best description I have ever 

 seen of the first notes of the bobolink's song. He 

 says : " I hear the note of a bobolink concealed 

 in the top of an apple-tree behind me. . . . He is 

 just touching the strings of his theorbo, his glassi- 

 chord, his water organ, and one or two notes globe 

 themselves and fall in liquid bubbles -from his 

 tuning throat. It is as if he touched his harp 

 within a vase of liquid melody, and when he lifted 

 it out the notes fell like bubbles from the trem- 

 bling strings. Methinks they are the most liquidly 

 sweet and melodious sounds I ever heard." 



Almost every one gives a different rendering of 

 the bobolink's meaning. The little German chil- 

 dren playing in our meadows cry after him in 

 merry mimicry, " Onde-dey dunkel-dey onde-dey 

 dunkel-dey" The farm boy calls him the " corn- 

 planting bird," and thinks he says, " Dig a hole, 

 dig a hole, put it in, put it in, cover *t up, cover 't 

 up, stamp on ', stamp on ', step along.'' 1 



VIII. 



RUFFED GROUSE; PARTRIDGE. 



THE partridge, or ruffed grouse as he is more 

 properly called, is our first true woods bird. His 



