THE TURUSU. 5 



heard by others as well as himself. Mr. Knapp, 

 too, listened to one which frequented a copse, and 

 which after a certain round uf tune, " trilled out 

 most repilarly some notes that conveyed fo clearly 

 the words * Lady-hird ! lady-Lird !' that every one 

 marki'd the rcsenihhince. lie survived the win- 

 ter," adds the naturalist, " and in the ensuin- 

 spring, * Lady-bird ! lady-bird !' was still the bur- 

 den of our evening song ; it then ceased, and we 

 never heard this jiretty mmlulation more. Though 

 merely an rxicasiunal strain, yet I have noticed it 

 ebewhcre— it thus appearing to l>c a favourite 

 utterance.' 



We do not wonder, as wo hearken to the thrush's 

 ftOng, that it should always be a favourite one with 

 the poet and the lover of nature. Chaucer, who, 

 as has U-en remarked, " seems of all poets to have 

 Ix-cn the f.mdest of the singing of birds," and who 

 wtis entranced by them as they sang from the green 

 leiives " with the voice of angels," seems to liave 

 delighted in tliat of our early bird, when he com- 

 pared the human voice to its music : — 



•• Swoie hifl tongue tw the throstle's note," 



Graham, too, has well described both bird and 

 minstrelsy : — 



