314 



LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS. 



trill forth on moonlight nights, making the woods lo ring 

 again. We have listened enraptured to the united melody 

 of dozens of these birds together, in the orange-groves of 

 Jamaica, during those beautiful nights when a tropical 

 moon looks down from the vertical sky in dazzling lustre, 

 when the air is cooled by the fresh land-breeze from the 

 mountains, and thousands of fire-flies are sailing in and 

 out at the dark edges of the woods, like living sparks of 

 fire. Then the birds, each taking his stand on the topmost 

 twig of an orange or lime-tree, pour forth, one after 

 another, their gushing songs, now one answering his fellow, 

 now all singing together as if eager to drown each other's 

 voice; now one alone is heard for a few moments, then 

 the others rush anew into the contest, which is often 

 maintained till after midnight. 



The song of Birds is closely connected with the repro- 

 duction of the race. There are a few species, it is true, 

 as the Redbreast, that protract their melody into autumn, 

 and even into winter; but the grand chorus of the woods 

 and fields comes in and goes out with spring. It is the 

 male, almost exclusively, that is the performer; he begins 

 to sing his love-song as he woos his mate, while the hedges 

 are yet leafless; he sings blithely in the intervals of his 

 labour, as he assists to build the nest ; and he sings almost 

 without intermission from morning till night, to cheer his 

 spouse in her patient duty of incubation. As soon as the 

 parental duties cease, we hear little more of " the voice of 

 the bird." 



And thus we are introduced to that miracle of instinct, 

 the Bird's nest; which must, however, be the special sub- 

 ject of another chapter. 



