240 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Yet music haunts it, and ere long 

 From some wild crag will float a song, 

 Perchance the protest loud and strong 



Of one who brooks no guest ; 

 Perhaps a love-plaint true and clear 

 Meant to attract the distant ear 

 Of wandering mate called back to cheer, 



Or mind the busy nest. 



Sweep the grey boulders, and you soon 

 Shall see the form whence flows the tune, 

 And mark a crescent like the moon, 



Beneath a sable throat, 

 With golden lips that warble till 

 The yearnings melt into a trill 

 Of joy, as flitting round the hill 



The truant hears his note." 



In several of the poems which have other themes we find the 

 fancy of the author to be so taken with Bird-Life that he is 

 constantly borrowing from it some of his illustrations. Thus, in 

 one called "A Woman's Destiny," we meet with the stanza:— 



" Vain show and Fashion cannot fill 



The yawning gulf at a man's core : 

 And wasted is the woman's skill, 



Who, copying, would please him more : 

 The reeve may deem herself too plain, 



The ruff approves her russet dress, 

 To don his plumage were no gain, 



To ape his strut would draw him less." 



And what Mr. Rickards has written concerning the robbing of 

 a bird's nest contains some words which are, unfortunately, only 

 too true : — 



" I took them as a thing of course ; 

 Collectors never know remorse, 

 And seldom feel regret." 



