86 



GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



song; the notes of the cat-bird, jay and thrasher, 

 chewink, pewee and robin, being each easily recog- 

 nized as components of the medley. 



As the clouds banked up in the west and north a 

 turtle dove cooed softly above my head. A rain crow 

 in a neighboring oak uttered his harsh retrain about 

 the rain that was sure to come. Bob-white, in a stub- 

 ble field on the hill above, whistled at intervals his 



Fig. 21 Southern Mocking-bird. (After Judd.) 



summer note. A yellow-breasted chat in a near-by 

 thorn tree scolded incessantly, as only a chat can scold, 

 at my intrusion on his domain ; while, blithest of all, 

 was the song of the indigo-bunting and the merry 

 warble of the vireos which were heard on every side. 

 Such sounds as these were uncommon here forty 

 years ago. The silence of the treeless tow-path was 

 then seldom broken except by the mule boy's 

 ga-lang there," or "git up. gol-dern ye." 



