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THE HEDGE-SPARROW'S COMPLAINT. 



Motacilla Nodularis. — Linnaeus. 

 Sylvia Modularis. — Latham. 



I have heard well-pleas'd, attentive, 



Many birds their carols sing ; 

 Sweet the power of song inventive ! — 



Power to soothe, to charm a king. 



But what power may soothe my anguish ? 



What shall chase my grief away ? 

 Mine, not throbs of love's soft languish — 



Deeper far my woe than they. 



Rapine gives my plaint its feature ; 



Rapine ! 'tis too mild a name 

 For the deeds which outrage nature ;— 



Deeds for which man 's oft to blame. 



The blackbird has a loud and beautiful note ; it sings in this 

 country during the spring for about three months ; is generally 

 silent the remainder of the year, except that, upon being dis- 

 turbed, it utters a peculiar shrieking, not easily described, yet 

 well known to the natural historian. 



The mode in which this bird, and some others of the thrush 

 tribe separate house-snails from their shells by striking them 

 repeatedly against a stone, deserves notice ; the labour which 

 they expend in doing this is, sometimes, almost incredible. 



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