Song Birds and Water Fowl 



their own kind. They are not ranked as sing- 

 ers, and usually splutter as badly as grackles ; 

 but a pair of notes one will sometimes hear from 

 them are as rich as a starling's, to which they are 

 distantly related. 



If one can get near enough to a large flock of 

 red-winged blackbirds chattering in a tree in 

 spring, he will hear an effect I have never seen 

 mentioned ; beneath the loud and incessant 

 medley of coarser notes, he will distinctly de- 

 tect an almost continuous soft undertone of a 

 very musical jangle, as of distant sleigh-bells — 

 a reminiscence very apropos. 



It is interesting to notice how we find, an- 

 nually, a copy in small of that supposed order 

 of procedure which arranged the programme 

 throughout the original creative year. The 

 lowest order of plant-life is the algae or sea- 

 weeds, which are represented very early in 

 spring, or in the latter part of winter, by thick 

 masses of confervse — the slimy, green substance 

 so luxuriant in every stagnant pond and pool. 

 Above the algae, in the scale of organization, 

 are the mosses that, with equal promptness, 

 richly deck the rocks, protruding roots, and 

 trunks of trees. Still higher in the line are the 

 two distinct groups of the monocotyledonous 

 266 



