MINOR SONGSTERS. 175 



As one of his titles indicates, the bay-wing 

 is famous for singing in the evening, when, of 

 course, his efforts are doubly acceptable ; and I 

 can readily believe that Mr. Minot is correct in 

 his " impression " that he has once or twice 

 heard the song in the night. For while spend- 

 ing a few days at a New Hampshire hotel, 

 which was surrounded with fine lawns such as 

 the grass finch delights in, I happened to be 

 awake in the morning, long before sunrise, 

 when, in fact, it seemed like the dead of night, 

 and one or two of these sparrows were pip- 

 ing freely. The sweet and gentle strain had 

 the whole mountain valley to itself. How 

 beautiful it was, set in such a broad " margin 

 of silence," I must leave to be imagined. I 

 noticed, moreover, that the birds sang almost 

 incessantly the whole day through. Much of 

 the time there were two singing antiphonally. 

 Manifestly, the lines had fallen to them in 

 pleasant places : at home for the summer in 

 those luxuriant Sugar-Hill fields, in continual 

 sight of yonder magnificent mountain pano- 

 rama, with Lafayette himself looming grandly 

 in the foreground ; while they, innocent souls, 

 had never so much as heard of hotel-keepers 

 and their bills. " Happy commoners," indeed ! 

 Their " songs in the night " seemed nowise sur- 

 prising. I fancied that I could be happy my- 

 self in such a case. 



