ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SONG-BIRDS. 131 



the garden-fence or the roadside so early in March, 

 so prophetic and touching, with endless variations 

 and pretty trilling effects ; or the song of the vesper 

 sparrow, full of the repose and the wild sweetness of 

 the fields ; or the strain of the little bush-sparrow, 

 suddenly projected upon the silence of the fields, or 

 of the evening twilight, and delighting the ear as a 

 beautiful scroll delights the eye. The white-crowned, 

 the white-throated, and the Canada sparrows sing 

 transiently spring and fall, and I have heard the fox- 

 sparrow in April when his song haunted my heart 

 like some bright, sad, delicious memory of youth 

 the richest and most moving of all sparrow-songs. 

 Our wren-music, too, is superior to anything of the 

 kind in the Old World, because we have a greater 

 variety of wren-songsters. Our house-wren is infe- 

 rior to the British house-wren, but our marsh-wren 

 has a lively song, while our winter wren, in spright- 

 liuess, mellowness, plaintiveness, and execution, is 

 surpassed by but few songsters in the world. The 

 summer haunts of this wren are our high, cool, north- 

 ern woods, where, for the most part, his music is lost 

 on the primeval solitude. 



The British fly-catcher, according to White, is a 

 silent bird, while our species, as the phcebe-bird, the 

 wood-pewee, the kingbird, the little green fly-catcher, 

 and others, all have notes more or less lively and 

 musical. The great crested fly-catcher has a harsh 

 voice, but the pathetic and silvery note of the wood- 

 pewee more than makes up for it. White says the 



