BIEDS OF THE PASTUEE AND FOEEST. 



I. 



He who has always lived in the city or its suburbs, 

 who has seldom visited the interior except for purposes 

 of trade, and whose walks have not often extended be- 

 yond those roads which are bordered on each side by 

 shops and dwelling-houses, may never have heard some 

 of our most remarkable songsters. These are the birds 

 of the pasture aud forest, those shy, melodious warblers 

 who sing only in the ancient haunts of the Dryads. 

 These birds have not multiplied like the familiar birds in 

 the same proportion with the increase of human popula- 

 tion and the extension of agriculture. Though they do not 

 shun mankind, they keep aloof from villages, living chiefly 

 in the deep wood or on the edge of the forest and in the 

 bushy pasture. 



There is a peculiar wildness in the songs of this class 

 of birds that awakens a delightful mood of mind, similar 

 to that which is excited by reading the figurative lyrics 

 of a romantic age. This feeling is undoubtedly, to a cer- 

 tain extent, the effect of association. Having always heard 

 their notes in wild and wooded places, they never fail to 

 bring this kind of scenery vividly before the imagination, 

 and their voices are like the sounds of mountain streams. 

 It is certain that the notes of the solitary birds do not 

 affect us like those of the Eobin and the Linnet ; and 

 their influence is the same, whether it be attributable 

 to some intrinsic quality or to association, which is in- 

 deed the source of some of the most delightful emotions 

 of the human soul. 



