68 
WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIBDS. 
ranting riot of sweet sounds ! I can see the mal-a-pert keep- 
ing time with his wings, as he goes sideways, dipping up and 
down, from one apple-tree top to another ! Hear that I It 
is the Eain-Crow, croaking for a storm ! Hey-dey ! Jay ! 
jay ! jay I It is the impish dandy Blue- Jay ! Hear, he has 
a strange, round, mellow whistle, too ! There goes the little 
yellow-throated warbler — ^the Wood-Pecker's sudden call — 
the King-Bird's waspish clatter — the Dove's low, plaintive 
coo — the little owl's screeching cry and snapping beak — ^the 
Tom-tit's tiny note — the King Fisher's rattle — ^the caw, the 
scream, the cry of love, of hate, or joy — all come rapidly and 
in unexpected contrasts ; yet with such clear precision, that 
each bird is fully expressed to my mind in its own individ- 
uality. 
Thus, all the past of my communion with such creatures, 
and with each fresh reality of the abounding Earth that I so 
loved, is made to me as a presence in which I live again. 
But, then, that wondrous song could speak yet higher music, 
as the swollen tide rushed, in wilder eddies, yet more tame- 
less, on ; and then, amongst these hurrying notes I knew, a 
thousand liquid strains would dart, in play, through and 
around, to meet them in mysterious whirls of flashing sound. 
These mystic meanings nature only knew ; my half-awed 
spirit could but dimly feel them ! Ah ! what calm, delicious 
hours were those ! Until three o'clock I would lie as one 
entranced within a dream of harmonies, such as the soul of 
nature taught old Chaos until he rendered up their notes in 
form and order, and the world took beauty on. 
At three o'clock the songs would cease, and then my 
spirit fell as one plunging down from glowing light into the 
sullen dark. Many, many nights have I thus spent beneath 
the moon and listening stars, when my good parents thought 
me safely asleep in my bed. Ah, those songs — those night- 
songs — ye can never pass away. 
As yet, I had never obtained a near view of a mocking 
bird — much as I worshipped the creature ; and as to finding 
