OUR FOREST CHORISTERS. 175 



S. The canary, among foreign birds, and the linnet and 

 bobolink, among American birds, are familiar examples of 

 the first class ; the common robin and the veery of the sec- 

 ond ; the wood-thrush, the cat-bird, and the mocking-bird, 

 of the third ; and the blue-bird, the pewee, and the pur- 

 ple martin, of the fourth class. It may be added that 

 some birds are nearly periodical in their habits of singing, 

 preferring the morning and evening, and occasional periods 

 in other parts of the day, while others sing almost indiffer- 

 ently at all hours. The greater number of species, how- 

 ever, are more tuneful in the early morning than at any 

 other hour. 



9. June, in this part of 'the world, is the most vocal 

 month of the year. Many of our principal songsters do 

 not arrive until the middle of May ; and all, whether they 

 come early or late, continue in song throughout the month 

 of June. The bobolink, which is one of the first to be- 

 come silent, continues vocal until the second week in July. 

 So nearly simultaneous is the discontinuance of the songs 

 of this species, that it might seem as if their silence were 

 preconcerted, and that by a vote they had on a certain day 

 adjourned over to another year. 



10. If an unusually genial day occurs about the seventh 

 of July, we may hear multitudes of them singing merrily 

 on that occasion. Should this time be followed by two or 

 three successive days of chilly and rainy weather, their 

 tunefulness is so generally brought to a close during this 

 period that we may not have another musical note from a 

 single individual after the seventh. The songs of birds 

 are discontinued as soon as their care of their offspring 

 has ceased. Hence, those birds that raise but one brood 

 of young during the season, like the bobolink, are the first 

 to become silent. 



11. No one of the New England birds is an autumnal 

 warbler, though the song-sparrow often greets the fine 



