Earliest Signs of Spring 



Continuing his ramble, our traveller will next 

 hear, perhaps, the sputtering and spilling at the 

 mouth of an excited gathering of purple 

 grackles, from the summit of a clump of trees — 

 an ill -trained rabble of March trumpeters, pro- 

 ducing a hubbub, spicy and not unpleasing at a 

 distance ; but close at hand abounding in such 

 idle gossip, spiteful criticism, and sour morality, 

 as would do credit to a flourishing country tea- 

 party of old ladies. The goldfinch, downy 

 woodpecker, red -winged blackbird, meadow 

 lark, flicker, purple finch, phoebe, cow-bird, 

 and field -sparrow, will quite likely add some 

 rich and varied grains of sound to all the 

 morning's medley ; possibly even the wild 

 screams of the hawks should be attributed to a 

 helpless ambition to be musical ; and before 

 the walk is ended he will surely hear that 

 carol, familiar, and yet never growing old, and 

 crowning all — the clear-toned, satisfying, and 

 uplifting warble of a joyous robin. 



The restfulness and stimulus of Nature, 

 which every attentive observer experiences in 

 out-door life, consists as largely in the easy and 

 unpremeditated alternation, and ever-fresh set- 

 ting of such familiar objects, as in their intrin- 

 sic excellence. These earliest spring - sounds, 

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