MINOR SONGSTERS. 183 



red-winged blackbird, indeed, has some really 

 praiseworthy notes; and to me for personal 

 reasons quite aside from any question about its 

 lyrical value his rough cucurree is one of the 

 very pleasantest of sounds. For that matter, 

 however, there is no one of our birds be he, 

 in technical language, " oscine " or " non-oscine " 

 whose voice is not, in its own way, agreeable. 

 Except a few uncommonly superstitious people, 

 who does not enjoy the whip-poor-will's trisyl- 

 labic exhortation, and the yak of the night- 

 hawk ? Bob White's weather predictions, also, 

 have a wild charm all their own, albeit his 

 persistent No more wet is often sadly out of ac- 

 cord with the farmer's hopes. We have no more 

 untuneful bird, surely, than the cow bunting ; 

 yet even the serenades of this shameless polyg- 

 amist have one merit, they are at least amus- 

 ing. With what infinite labor he brings forth his 

 forlorn, broken-winded whistle, while his tail 

 twitches convulsively, as if tail and larynx were 

 worked by the same spring ! 



The judging, comparing spirit, the conscien- 

 tious dread of being ignorantly happy when a 

 broader culture would enable us to be intelli- 

 gently miserable, this has its place, unques- 

 tionably, in concert halls ; but if we are to make 

 the best use of out-door minstrelsy, we must 

 learn to take things as we find them, throwing 



