26 BIRD-LAND ECHOES. 



strain out every trace of harshness in the song, and 

 we have, as so rarely happens, music set free. But 

 is this not true of many another bird's song? Even 

 the simple notes of the wood-pewee that are posi- 

 tively tiresome at noonday have a soothing sweet- 

 ness at nightfall that stays our steps and bids us 

 listen for their repetition. 



Here the vesper-sparrow is a resident bird as well 

 as migratory, and those that stay throughout the 

 winter are not mute even when the mercury ranges 

 low. How often, after a storm, when the sky was 

 darkly blue and the ground glistened with its cover- 

 ing of snow, have I seen the vesper-sparrow, un- 

 daunted by the glare of the mid-day sun, perch upon 

 a crisp outreaching weed, and heard its thanksgiving 

 as it rang, bell-like, in the still air ! Only the cut- 

 ting blasts of the north or east wind seem to silence 

 them, although they are now no such songsters as in 

 summer. These birds forsake the fields only while 

 the storms or high winds last. Where they seek 

 shelter at such times I am not sure, but no bird is 

 more prompt to return when quiet reigns again. 



Vesper-sparrows nest upon the ground and in the 

 fields, off in the middle of the fields at that, 

 and not among the weeds along the fences. At 

 least, this is the sum of my experience, which is all 

 that concerns me. It is silly to lay down any law 

 concerning birds. They would laugh at us did they 

 know it, for no creatures have stronger wills and 

 exercise them more capriciously. He who has not 

 seen many a contradictory bird has had indifferent 



