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12^ 

 Country Bird Rhymes. By tKe President. 



I. — English. 



Morn and eve the winter long, 

 You may hear the dipper's song, 

 Soft and gentle, sweet and clear ; 

 Hearken if you wish to hear. 



to hear the linnet 



Start his morning song ; 

 If he but begin it. 



All the feathered throng 

 Listen for a minute, 



Then break out in song. 



When the sedge bird in the thorn 



Tells the sleepy world his care, 

 When the beetle blows his horn, 



As he cleaves the balmy air, 

 Shrew and mouse begin to quake. 



For they know the hour is come 

 When the hungry owls awake. 



Hunt, and clutch, and bear them home. 



What time bright April's growing old. 

 And furze puts on its robe of gold. 

 The first cuckoo her presence tells. 

 And breaks the silence on the fells ; 

 And they who do not joy to hear 

 Find little joy throughout the year. 



Welcome is the corncrake's call, 

 Though so rough and same withal ; 

 When it falls upon the ear. 

 Who that hears it would not hear ? 



Cushats gently cooing in the lonely wood 

 Tell of rest unbroken, peace, and solitude : 

 Cushats on the corn lands crowding, cramming aye, 

 Tell how rest has vanished, peace has flown away. 



