40 BLUE-BIRD. 
Then loud-piping frogs make the marshes to ring 5 
Then warm glows the sunshine, and fine is the weather 5 
The blue woodland flowers just beginning to spring, 
And spicewood and sassafras budding together : 
O then to your gardens, ye housewives, repair, 
Your walks border up, sow and plant at your leisure ; 
The Blue-Bird will chant from his box such an air, 
That all your hard toils will seem truly a pleasure! 
He fiits through the orcharc, ne visits each tree, 
The red-flowering peach, and the apple’s sweet blossoms 5 
He snaps up destroyers wherever they be, 
And seizes the caitiffs that lurk in their bosoms ; 
He drags the vile grub from the corn it devours, 
The worms from their webs, where they riot and welter 5 
His song and his services freely are ours, 
And ail that he asks is— in summer a shelter. 
The ploughman is pleased when he gleans in his train, 
Now searching the furrows, now mounting to cheer him ; 
The gardener delights in his sweet, simple strain, 
And leans on his spade to survey and to hear him, 
The slow, lingering schoolboys forget they'll be chia, 
While gazing intent as he warbles: before them, 
In mantle of sky-blue, and bosom so red, 
That each little loiterer seems to adore him. 
When all the gay scenes of the summer are o’er, 
And autumn slow enters, so silent and sallow, 
And millions of warblers, that charm’d us before 
Have fled in the train of the sun-seeking Swallow, 
The Blue-Bird, forsaken, yet true to his home, 
Still lingers, and looks ior a milder to-morrow, 
Till, forced by the horrors of winter to roam, 
He sings his adieu in a lone note of sorrow. 
While spring’s lovely season, serene, dewy, warm, 
The green face of earth, and the pure blue of heaven, 
Or love’s native music have influence to charm, 
Or sympathy’s glow to our feelings are given, ¢ 
Still dear to each bosom the Blue-Bird shall be ; 
His voice, like the thrillings of hope, is a treasure ; 
. For, through bleakest storms, if a calm he but see, 
He comes to remind us of sunshine and pleasure ! 
The Blue-Bird, in summer and fall, is fond of frequenting open pas- 
ture’ fields, and there perching on the stalks of the great mullein, to 
look out for passing insects. A whole family of them are often seen 
thus situated, as if receiving lessons of dexterity from their more ex- 
pert parents, who can espy a beetle crawling among the grass, at a 
considerable distance ; and, after feeding on it, instantly resume their 
former position.* But whoever informed Dr. Latham, that “this bird 
* The very habits of our European Susicole are here described ; they invariably 
seek the summit of some elevation, a hillock, a stone, bush, or some of the taller 
wild plants, and if occasionally on a tree, the topmost branch is always preferred ; 
there they perch, uttering their monotonous call, which increases in anxiety and 
frequency as we approach the nest, or the young before they are able to fly; or 
they alight at intervals, run for some distance, and again remount to a fresh station. 
When not annoyed, they retain the sam: elevated situations, looking out for food, 
taking the insects seldom on the wing, >ut generally by a sudden spring, or leap 
