AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 79 



AFTER THE STORM, THE SUNSHINE. 



Alberta Field. 



" My sight, and smell and hearing were employ 'd 

 And all three senses in full gust enjoy'd. " 



Dryden. 



MERALDS cannot vie with the sparkling drops that 



g ^^^ j adorn every tree and shrub, and which reflect the 



f~ glorious face of their beloved Apollo until we deem him 



I abashed at his own brilliancy. Every bird bursts his 



j] ^^ \ joyous throat in gladness. Every flower petal wafts 



peans of mute adoration to its Creator. Flower gor- 

 *j§ geousness. Bird brilliancy. Blossom odor, all thrill 



the senses. 

 A great straggling Eglantine, emblem of romance and poetry tosses 

 its fragrant arms in the soft summer air, laden with its blossoms of 

 " wild rose " daintiness, and jewels of living green, which brings to my 

 eager nostrils, whiffs of Richard Jefferies' sweet briar wind. Among 

 the glistening branches of a great chestnut, flit three or four atoms of 

 scarlet; only Tanagers imbued with the ecstacy of life. Up and through 

 they dash away, glad atoms of quickened crimson. From whence do 

 they procure their vivid dyes ? Not from human alchemist, indeed ! 

 but rather stolen from the fierce fires of some sunset of the tropics. 

 But they repent not the theft as they challenge each other with resound- 

 ing " chip-chur-r-r-, chip-churr-r-r, " clear notes of defiance and rivalry. 

 A sparrow, whose plumage emits but dull flashes, thrills us with the 

 force of his harmony instead, and almost bursts his swelling throat in 

 his song of adoration; " Think-think-think-sir ( meditatively )-how- 

 sweet-in-all-she-is-to-me, " the last notes rushing forth with all the 

 eagerness of his little bursting heart. 



The liquid " a-o-le-le, a-o-a-o-le, " of a Wood Thrush falls softly 

 through the branches of a great pine close at hand, his back of rich 

 olive taking on iridescent glints of green in the sunlight. A sly Her- 

 mit, an Italian-voiced cousin of the Wood Thrush, hops shyly from 

 beneath a gray beach, but just now he is silent, numerous parental 

 cares and responsibilities, and natural discretion, have, for the once, 

 overwhelmed him and subdued his never too copious loquacity. He is 

 the smallest representative of his family, and particularly noticeable 

 for his gold eye ring. A tiny ball of green-embossed yellow feathers, 

 which 'resolves itself into a Yellow Warbler, peeks curiously under- 

 neath some luxuriant viburnum leaves in search of a worm morsel, and, 

 by the way, is not this a reprehensible habit of the warblers, this eter- 

 nal peering below the surface ? But food and not philosophy is his 



