BIRD SONGS 57 



certain combinations of letters will convey 

 some idea of their notes, as for example 

 the pleasant call of our titmouse, " chic-a- 

 dee-dee." But we do not want to write 

 these songs in a book ; to get the full 

 beauty of them we must impress them 

 upon our minds by hearing them often, 

 and then when we wish to recall them we 

 may, with all their environment, which is 

 half their charm, and no matter where we 

 are we can hear our favorite bird singing 

 his sweetest strain in some secluded spot 

 we love. 



There are two kinds of songs of which 

 I would speak, familiar and unfamiliar. 



February has hardly fairly retreated be- 

 fore we hear, each year, if we wander to 

 some damp thicket of catbrier, blackberry 

 and general underbrush, the low sweet 

 voice of the song sparrow echoing from its 

 depths, such a familiar voice and so joy- 

 ously welcomed. Early in March whether 

 the day be rainy or fair, if we chance to 

 pass that way again we shall hear the 

 song anew, sung instead from the upper- 

 most spray of the thicket and its tones 

 put new vigor into our winter-stricken 

 bodies, give us a new lease of life as would 



