OUT OF DOORS WITH NATURE. 
833 
extremity of the abdomen was armed with a poisonous sting ; 
and after this discovery, never attempted to swallow a was]^ 
until he first pinched his abdomen to the extremity, forcing- 
out the sting with the receptacle of poison.' " 
It will be perceived that I have here some pretty staunch 
backing in regarding it as an absurdity to call such plainly 
practical common -sense proceedings instinctive. Why, you 
destroy the higher meaning of the most beautiful facts of 
nature by levelling them all to mere mechanical and invol- 
untary impulse. Pooh, tell me that the greeting of the 
dainty Blue Bird to the opening spring is merely that of a 
little feathered music-box, wound up and set going ! You 
had as well stigmatize as " machine rhyming" the following 
song, which only a happy human soul, brimming over with 
that most tender and delicate inspiration with which God 
fills his nobler children here on earth, could have made 
articulate ! 
Aye and verily it was my chivalric and gentle friend — he 
of the valorous Blue-Bird heart — Noble Butler, Esq., of 
Louisville, Kentucky, who did indite this same song. 
THE BLUE BIRD. 
Though Avinter's power fades away, 
The tyrant does not yield; 
But still he holds a waning sway 
O'er hill, and grove, and field. 
But while he still is lingering. 
Some lovely days appear — 
Bright heralds from the train of Spring, 
To tell that she is near. 
It is as if a day of heaven 
Had fallen from on high, 
And God's own smiles, for sunlight given, 
AVere beaming through the sky. 
The Blue Bird now, with joyous note, 
His song of triumph sings ; 
