328 
WILD SCENES AND SONG BIEDS. 
minutes since, tlie soft twittering of the Blue Martin, under- 
neath the eaveS; has been becoming more and more musically 
discordant, as meek dark eyes are opened amidst the gabble. 
Now, from the family tree that shadows the roof, the loud, 
clear song of the Eobin awakes his brooding mate. Now 
the Cat-Bird's limpid roundelay steals out from the garden 
hedge; and, in low ^olian twitterings, the delicate Blue 
Bird greets the morning — while, from the swinging summit 
of some oak bordering the forest, the bold pipe of tlie Cardi- 
nal Grosbeak rings its shrill call, waking the startled echoes 
like the tiny clarion of some Knight of Fairie. And now, 
from some scented tuft of grasses, delicious as the voice of 
all their aromas, a rounded glide of melody, like dew-drops 
rolling from a rose's cheek, creeps sudden on the sense from 
where the dainty Meadow Lark leans its dark breast against 
the clover-tops — and all at once the garrulous clatter of the 
gay Orchard Oriole breaks in. Now hush ! hush ! the noble 
Brown Thrush has mounted to the spire of yon young maple 
— his inspiration is upon him — and lo ! the deep and won- 
drous flow of sound ! — ^plaintivC; mellow, wild, and wierd — 
hark ! the ecstatic measured limpid gushes ! The sultry, 
drowsy trill of the Song Sparrow, on the fence-post below, 
is scarcely noted, although he rises on tip-toe to it, in his 
furious earnest to be heard. And now the full choir is 
aroused; and in a mighty burst of harmony the Sun is 
greeted as his burnished disk wheels up the Orient. And 
now the Monarch of Earth's song, who, like other aristo- 
crats, keeps late hours, and therefore is in no hurry to rise 
in the morning, thinks it full time to give his nois}^ subjects a 
new lesson in music, and soon his powerful song climbs to 
the throne of sound, and all other notes are hushed in the 
usurping splendors of his majestic minstrelsy! 
Now, too, away in the wild forest, the Hunter-Naturalist, 
bearded and brown, as he sits beside his solitary camp fire, 
hears a consoling minstrelsy, as cheerful, as soft, as sweet 
as any in this neighboring choir. Here him tell how a 
