APRIL 97 



very high. In this drum, or by the aid of it, the 

 sound is produced. Generally the note is very feehle 

 at first, as if the frost was not yet all out of the 

 creature's throat, and only one voice will be heard, 

 some prophet bolder than all the rest, or upon whom 

 the quickening ray of spring has first fallen. And 

 it often happens that he is stoned for his pains by 

 the yet unpaoified element, and is compelled literally 

 to " shut up " beneath a fall of snow or a heavy 

 frost. Soon, however, he lifts up his voice again 

 with more confidence, and is joined by others and 

 still others, till in due time, say toward the last of 

 the month, there is a shrill musical uproar, as the 

 sun is setting, in every marsh and bog in the land. 

 It is a plaintive sound, and I have heard people 

 from the city speak of it as lonesome and depress- 

 ing, but to the lover of the country it is a pure 

 spring melody. The little piper will sometimes 

 climb a bulrush, to which he clings like a sailor to 

 a mast, and send forth his shrill call. There is a 

 Southern species, heard when you have reached the 

 Potomac, whose note is far more harsh and crack- 

 ling. To stand on the verge of a swamp vocal with 

 these, pains and stuns the ear. The call of the 

 Northern species is far more tender and musical.* 



Then is there anything like a perfect April morn- 

 ing 1 One hardly knows what the sentiment of it 

 is, but it is something very delicious. It is youth 

 and hope. It is a new earth and a new sky. How 



1 The Southern species is called the green hyla. I have since 

 heard them in my neighborhood on the Hudson. 



