NATUKE AND HER HARMONIES. 
19 
Rev. may be called the D'Orsaj of Birds, and the tribe of the 
Tanagers, the Patriarchs of " Turn-coats." Let not the wor- 
shippers of Fashion be longer stigmatized as nose-led by a 
Parisian Dandy, or old Federalists, or new light Locofocos, 
as nasally guided by the savor of "flesh-pots." Here they 
have far more respectable precedents : their respective orders 
were no doubt instituted by Nature herself. Should they but 
consult this candid and ancient Dame, she would, no doubt, 
recommend to the "Count" the figure of our "Parson," as 
proper to be introduced into his coat-of-arms, and to the 
Tory Demagogues that of the Tanagers as proper to the coat- 
of-arms they see in " yearning dreams." 
Audubon uses a charming phrase in characterizing the en- 
thusiasm which he found himself giving way to in the de- 
scription of his feeling on the unexpected consummation 
of what he considered the triumphant achievement of his 
life — the discovery of the Bird of Washington. He sud- 
denly fears that he may be considered as " prattling out of 
fashion!" Well, that is just the thing! I consider it pe- 
culiarly felicitous and to the point. 
Though the story may not be particularly savory in some 
of its associations, I shall even venture, at the risk of such 
an imputation, to relate one from the reminiscences of my 
early boyhood concerning those sharp denizens of air, known 
as " Corvus Americanus^^ — the gentleman in black. 
I once saw some crov,^s feeding on the offal of a late slaugh- 
tering of domestic animals not far from my father's house. 
There had been a very deep snow on the ground for some 
weeks, and the crows had become very ravenous. The place 
where they fed, was within gun-shot of a cedar-hedge. After 
firing amongst them once or twice, they all took the alarm, 
and to my knowledge, never came back again, except one 
very large, and, I should think, gray-muzzled bird. I noticed 
that he uniformly seemed to have his eye or nose, it is diffi- 
cult to tell which, upon me ; for when I would reach my 
hiding-place, I could see the gentleman make a desperate 
