WOOD PBWEE. 353 



show a steep slope from six to twenty-five feet in height. This slope is covered 

 almost to the level of the street with thickets of the common locust, large trees of 

 which crest the hill above. There are also other trees of medium size and quite a 

 numher of ornamental shrubs. Apple trees of rather large size occupy the ground where 

 it fronts to the south-east. Several Lombardj- poplars are also present. This compara- 

 tively quiet place forms an oasis in the centre of the crowded city for many birds. 

 Goldfinches nest in the apple trees and Baltimore Orioles in the Lombard3'^ poplars or 

 in a noble elm behind my house. Yellow Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, and Indigo 

 Buntings find the dense upright honey -suckles and mock-orange bushes excellent places 

 in which to build their nests. In the large locust trees the beautiful Red-headed Wood- 

 pecker has taken up its abode. Its characteristic notes, really poetical in the sweet and 

 flowery days of late spring and early summer, are frequently heard. Thej-^ sound like 

 hurrrrr, hurrrrr, and are unmistakable. In the maple trees the Warbling Vireo chants 

 its peculiarly sweet lay. When the apple trees are in full bloom, there is hardly a moi-e 

 beautiful and lively spot in the city, and the view from the open Avindowof my study, 

 w^ith all this glory of blossoms and birds before my eyes, is truh' magnificent. The 

 sprightly ditty of numerous Wood Warblers on their way to the North, and now busily 

 engaged in capturing insects among this wealth of blossoms, falls constantly on my 

 ear. The loud and mellow whistle of the Baltimore Oriole, the charming song of the 

 Rose-breasted Grosbeak, the proud and flute-like carol of the Scarlet Tanager, the happy 

 strain of the Robin, as well as the far-sounding hurrrrr of the Red-headed Woodpecker, 

 combine to make this May day of mild air and sweet blossoms an especially beautiful 

 one to the friend of Nature. Higher emotions inspire us. We rise early in the morning 

 in order to enjoy all the pleasure now in store for us. In the second week of May the 

 bird-concert in the early morning hours, before sunrise, is so enchantingh' beautiful that 

 only the early riser can imagine and appreciate its entrancing power on the mind of the 

 listener. Almost all the birds have returned from their winter-quarters, as insect-food 

 now is abundant. In the third w^eek of May even the most delicate summer sojourners 

 make their appearance. 



One morning in the third week of May, w^hile standing at the open w^indow^ of my 

 room, absorbed in listening to the many-voiced spring concert that falls on my ear from 

 across the street, I hear the sweet and plaintive notes of the Wood Pewee. These 

 sounds are so characteristic that they are distinctly heard among the other voices. The 

 burden of sorrow^ which seems to be never lifted from this ever-lamenting bird, is again 

 brought back from the tropics as in all the former j'ears. Although exceedingly sad 

 and sorrow^ful, these notes have to me a ver3'^ pleasing and home-like eflect, and I should 

 consider it a great loss should I fail to hear this bird in the concert of the warbling 

 minstrels of the grove. I have listened to the sweet pe-ay, pay-ee, and pe-u-ee in the 

 primeval forest of Wisconsin since my earliest childhood. Later these sounds were heard 

 frequently in the oak-woods of northern Illinois. When I roamed about among the 

 magnolias, laurel and live-oaks, loblolly bays and sweet gums of the coast region of 

 Texas and in southern Louisiana, the familiar Wood Pewee everywhere greeted me as 

 an old acquaintance, and when I took up mj' abode in the post-oak woods of Texas, 

 this bird was my constant neighbor for at least five months of the year. In the 



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