90 BIRDS OF THE GARDEN AND ORCHARD. 



among innocent songsters, — have not overlooked a bird so 

 large and plump as the Meadow-Lark. Vain is its lisp- 

 ing and plaintive song ; vain is the beauty displayed in 

 its hovering and graceful flight, in its variegated plumage 

 and its interesting ways ! All these things serve but to 

 render its species the more conspicuous mark for gunners, 

 who have hunted them so incessantly that they are now 

 as shy as the persecuted Crow, and as elusive a mark for 

 the sportsman as a Loon. 



Samuels says that "usually one bird of a flock is 

 perched on a tree or a fence-post as a sentinel, and the 

 moment a gunner approaches, the bird gives his alarm," 

 when all the flock take wing. The Meadow-Lark is vari- 

 egated above with different shades of yellow and brown ; 

 beneath, a lighter brown speckled with black. Its flight 

 is very graceful, though not vigorous. The motions of its 

 wings are rapid and intermittent, the slight pauses in 

 their vibratory motions giving them a character quite 

 unique. 



THE CEDAR-BIRD. 



Little bird, that watchest the season of mellow fruits, 

 and makest thy appearance like a guest who comes only 

 on feast-days, and, like a truant urchin, takest the fair 

 products of the garden without leave of the owner, saying 

 not even a grace over thy meals like the Preacher, but 

 silently taking thy fill, and then leaving without even a 

 song of thankfulness, — still I will welcome thee to the 

 festival of Nature, both for thy comely presence and thy 

 cheerful and friendly habit with thy fellows. 



The Cedar-Bird is not a songster. It seldom utters 

 any note save the lisp that may always be heard when it 

 is within sight. Dr. Brewer, who kept a wounded one in 

 a cage, mentions that " beside its low, lisping call, this 

 bird had a regular, faint attempt at a song of several low 



