Earliest Signs of Spring ' 



Continuing his ramble, our traveller will next 

 hear, perhaps, the sputtering and spilling at the 

 mouth of an excited gathering of purple 

 grackles, from the summit of a clump of trees — 

 an ill-trained rabble of March trumpeters, pro- 

 ducing a hubbub, spicy and not unpleasing at a 

 distance ; but close at hand abounding in such 

 idle gossip, spiteful criticism, and sour morality, 

 as would do credit to a flourishing country tea- 

 party of old ladies. The goldfinch, downy 

 woodpecker, red - winged blackbird, meadow 

 lark, flicker, purple finch, phoebe, cow-bird, 

 and field -sparrow, will quite likely add some 

 rich and varied grains of sound to all the 

 morning's medley; possibly even the wild 

 screams of the hawks should be attributed to a 

 helpless ambition to be musical ; and before 

 the walk is ended he will surely hear that 

 carol, familiar, and yet never growing old, and 

 crowning all — the clear-toned, satisfying, and 

 uplifting warble of a joyous robin. 



The restfulness and stimulus of Nature, 

 which every attentive observer experiences in 

 out -door life, consists as largely in the easy and 

 unpremeditated alternation, and ever-fresh set- 

 ting of such familiar objects, as in their intrin- 

 sic excellence. These earliest spring - sounds, 

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