NATUEE AND HER HARMONIES. 
19 
Rev. may be called the D'Orsay 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 " Hesh-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 
