strong, for the materials are firmly meaning to be green. Mr. Dawson 



woven and they are suspended from suggests: ''One cannot be sure whether 



forked twigs from four to fifty feet it was the bird's color, or good cheer, 



above the ground. or characteristic note, which led Vieillot 



The generic name, Vireo, of this in 1807 to select for this group the name 



beautiful bird is an interesting and ap- Vireo, a Latin word meaning, I am^ 



propriate name. It is a Latin word green, or flourishing." 



EVENING IN THE SALT MEADOWS 



Now, glimmering plumelets of grasses swing slow, 



By brown-seeded heads of withering hay. 

 And nourishing worts, which your cattle know 



For the briny tang of each salt-jointed spray. 



Here the rosemary drowses with leathery leaves. 

 And spikelets of blue, like a spinster on guard ; 



But around her gray form one faintly perceives 

 The kindliest sifting and drifting of nard. 



And tall as a man, the marsh-mallow towers, 



With stiff woolly stems, and soft do^v/ny leaves — 



Our hollyhock's cousin with flesh-colored flowers, 



All bending their heads when the night-wind grieves. 



The hare is seeking his shelter ; the tern 



Has hidden her young ; but abroad in this dusk, 



Are folk of the marsh, you can scarcely discern, 



Save the bat for his whir, and the mole by his musk. 



Now, the marsh wren sleeps in her rushy nest. 



With its dim side-door, and its plastered dome ; 



When she leans to the brood, her white little breast, 

 How dear seems the tiny and sheltering home ! 



Like shadowy heaps, on the summer drift-grass 



Lie your salt-meadow cattle, and over them blows 



The land-breeze to sea, and night-herons pass 

 With clamor, nor mar their honest repose. 



— Eliza Woodworth. 



17 



