82 BIRD-SONGS ABOUT WORCESTER. 



red-eyed vireo. These are the midsum- 

 mer and late summer minstrels par excel- 

 lence. Their singing seems to be entirely 

 independent of their breeding habits. In 

 the extracts from his journal entitled 

 " Summer," edited by Mr. H. G. O. Blake, 

 Thoreau writes : " Some birds are poets 

 and sing all summer. They are the true 

 singers. Any man can write verses in the 

 love season. We are most interested in 

 those birds that sing for the love of the 

 music and not of their mates; who medi- 

 tate their strains and amuse themselves 

 with singing; the birds whose strains are 

 of deeper sentiment." 



The song-sparrow deserves especial 

 praise for singing so late in the season, 

 and there is probably no other of our 

 birds that from first to last contributes so 

 much to the general chorus. Appearing 

 sometimes as early as the first week in 

 March, he begins singing from the first 

 moment of his arrival, and continues to 

 regale us with his lively and spirited 

 melody, sometimes until the first of Sep- 



