194 
THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
her mate will undertake the charge of the family en- 
trusted to his care, she leaves them, to prepare 
another nest for her forthcoming brood, when the 
male bird, faithful to his charge, feeds and protects 
the little family with the greatest tenderness and 
assiduity, continuing with them till they are capable 
of providing for themselves. How, truly Thomson 
describes the separation of the young birds from their 
parents in the following sweet lines : — 
But now the feather'd youth their former bounds. 
Ardent, disdain, and, weighing oft their wings. 
Demand the free possession of the sky ; 
This one glad office more, and then dissolves 
Paternal love at once, now needless grown — 
Unlavish Wisdom never works in vain. 
^Tis on some evening, sunny, grateful, mild. 
When nought but balm is breathing through the 
woods 
With yellow lustre bright, that the new tribes 
Visit the spacious heavens, and look abroad 
On Nature's common, far as they can see, 
Or wing their range and pasture. O'er the boughs 
