A BIRD ANTHOLOGY FROM LOWELL. 255 



Like all discriminating lovers of " Nature's blithe 

 commoners," Lowell had his favorites, whose 

 praises he frequently rung with a sincerity that 

 cannot be doubted for a moment. He was espe- 

 cially partial to the bobolink. He must have often 

 peeped into the 



"Tussocks that house blithe Bob o' Lincoln/' 



or his Muse would not have been so adept and 

 faithful in her hymning descriptions. We will lend 

 a listening ear while she sings her chansons on the 

 virtues of the bird our poet loved so truly. First, 

 I will call attention to the following portraiture of 

 that cavalier of the meadow, the male bobolink, at 

 the season when there are bantlings in the grass- 

 domed nest which demand his paternal care, as 

 well as that of his faithful spouse, — 



" Meanwhile that devil-may-care, the bobolink, 

 Remembering duty, in mid-quaver stops 



Just ere he sweeps o'er rapture's tremulous brink, 

 And 'twixt the windrows most demurely drops, 



A decorous bird of business, who provides 



For his brown mate and fledgelings six besides. 

 And looks from right to left, a farmer 'mid his crops." 



One can almost see the poet leaning against the 

 rail fence of the clover field, with pencil in hand, 

 drawing the portrait of the bird which is posing 

 unconsciously before him, so true is his delineation 

 of bobolink life. But to find Lowell at his best you 

 must read his description of Robert o' Lincoln at 

 his best. Hark ! — 



