CLASSII. AVES. 13 



THE o'lINCON family.* 



A flock of merry singing-bii'ds were sporting iu the grove ; 

 Some were warbling cheerily, and some were making love ; 

 There were Bobolincon, Wadoliucon, Winterseeble, Conquedle, — 

 A livelier sot was never led by tabor, pipe, or fiddle, 

 Crying, " Phew, shew, Wadoliucon, see, see, Bobolincon, 

 Down among the tickletops, hiding in the buttercups ! 

 I know the saucy chap, I see his shining cap 

 Bobbing in the clover there, — see, see, see !" 



Up flies Bobolincon, perching on an apple-tree. 



Startled by his rival's song, quickened by his raillery. 



Soon he spies the rogue afloat, curvetting iu the air, 



And merrily he turns about, and warns him to beware ! 



"'Tis you that would a-wooing go, down among the rushes ! 



But wait a week, till flowers are cheery, — wait a week, and, ere you marry. 



Be sure of a house wherein to tarry ! 



Wadolink, Whiskodink, Tom Denny, wait, wait, wait!" 



Every one's a funny fellow ; every one's a little mellow ; 



Follow, follow, follow, follow, o'er the hill and in the hollow ! 



Merrily, men-ily, there they hie ; now they rise and now they fly ; 



They cross and turn, and in and out, and down in the middle, and wheel about, — 



With a " Whew, shew, Wadoliucon ! listen to me, Bobolincon ! — 



Happy's the wooing that's speedily doing, that's speedily doing, 



That's merry and over with the bloom of the clover ! 



Bobolincon, Wadoliucon, Winterseeble, follow, follow me !" 



Oh, what a happy life they lead, over the hill and in the mead ! 

 How they sing, and how they play ! See, they fl)' away, away ! 

 Now they gambol o'er the clearing, — ofl" again, and then appearing! 

 Poised aloft on quivering wing, now they soar, and now they sing : — 

 "We must all bo merry and moving; we must all be happj' and loving; 

 For when the midsummer has come, and the grain has ripened its ear. 

 The haymakers scatter our young, and we mourn for the I'ost of the year. 

 Then Bobolincon, Wadoliucon, Winterseeble, haste, haste away !" 



All this is very descriptive, but still to other minds, as we have already shown, these songs of 

 the bobolink have suggested not only entirely different sounds, but different associations. And 

 the case is the same, when an attempt is made to write down, by the use of letters, the sportive 

 notes uttered by most other birds. It would be easy to select numerous illustrations of this 

 from books of natural history, but the following will suffice : 



" Tiou, tiou, tiou tiou — Spe, tiou, squa — Tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, fix — Coutio, coutio, eoutio, 

 coutio — Squo, squo, squo, squo — Tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzi — Corror, tiou, squa, 

 pipiqui — Zozozozozozozozozozozozo, zirrhading ! — Tsissisi, tsissisisisisisisis — Dzorre, dzorre, dzorre, 

 dzorre, hi — Tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, dzi — Dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, 

 dlo — Quio, tr rn-i-riTr itz — Lu, hi, Iu, Iu, ly, ly, ly, ly, lie, lie, lie, lie — Quio didl li lulylie — Hagur, 

 gurr, quipio ! — Coui, coui, coui, coui, qui, qui, qui, gui, gui, gui, gui — Goll goll goU goll guia 

 hadadoi — Couigui, horr, ha diadia dill si I — Hezezezezezezezezezezezezezezezeze couar ho dze hoi 

 — Quia, quia, quia, quia, quia, quia, quia, quia ti — Ki, ki, ki, io, io, io, ioioioio ki — Lu ly li le lai 

 la, leu Io, didl io quia — Kigaigaigaigaigaigaigaigai guiagaigaigai couior dzio dzio pi." 



We think it will be equally surprising to those who have and those who have not heard the 

 Nightingale, to learn that this is given to the world as a literal transci'ipt of the song of that 

 renowned bird, and by one of its greatest admirers and most profound students — the celebrated 

 author of the work on Cage Birds — Dr. Bechstein. An attempt to transcribe the song of our cat- 

 bird or brown thrush, and still more surely the mocking-bird, would present a sijnilar wilderness 

 of inexpressible syllables. The simple truth is, that the melody of birds can neither be written nor 



*From "The Atlantic Monthly" for October, 1858, which has an interesting article on "The Birds of the Orchard 

 and the Garden." 



