CLASS II. AVES. 
13 
THE o'lINCON family.* 
A flock of merry singing-birds were sporting in tiie grove ; 
Some were warbling cheerily, and some were making love ; 
There were Bobolincon, "Wadolincon, Winterseeble, Conquedle, — 
A livelier set was never led by taboi-, pipe, or fiddle. 
Crying, " Phew, shew, "Wadolincon, see, see, Bobolincon, 
Down among the tickletops, hiding in the buttercups! 
I know the saucy chap, I see his shining cap 
Bobbing iu the clover there, — see, see, seei" 
Up flies Bobolincon, perching on an apple-tree, 
Startled by his rival's song, quickened by his raillery. 
Soon he spies the rogue afloat, curvetting in the air. 
And merrily he turns about, and warns him to beware ! 
"'Tis you that would a- wooing go, down among the rushes 01 
But wait a week, till flowers are cheery, — wait a week, and, ere you marry. 
Be sure of a house wherein to tarry ! 
"Wadolink, Whiskodiuk, Tom Denny, wait, wait, wait !" 
Every one's a funny fellow ; every one's a little mellow ; 
Follow, follow, follow, follow, o'er the hill and in the hollow ! 
Merrily, merrily, there they hie ; now they rise and now they fly ; 
They cross and turn, and in and out, and down in the middle, and wheel about, — 
With a " Whew, shew, Wadolincon ! listen to me, Bobolincon! — 
Happy's the wooing that's speedily doing, that's speedily doing, 
That's merry and over with the bloom of the clover ! 
Bobolincon, Wadolincon, Winterseeble, follow, follow me !" 
Oh, what a happy life they lead, over the hill and in the mead! 
How they sing, and how they play ! See, they fly away, away I 
Now they gambol o'er the clearing, — oS again, and then appearing! 
Poised aloft on quivering wing, now they soar, and now they sing : — 
"We must all be merry and moving; we must all be happy and loving^ 
For when the midsummer has come, and the grain has ripened its ear, 
The hajnnakers scatter our young, and we mourn for the rest of the year. 
Then Bobolincon, Wadolincon, Winterseeble, haste, haste away J" 
All tills is very descriptive, but still to other minds, as we have already shown, these songs of 
the bobolink have suggested not only entirely different sounds, but different associations. And 
the case is the same, when an attempt is made to write down, by the use of letters, the sportive 
notes uttered by most other birds. It would be easy to select numerous illustrations of this 
from books of natural history, but the following will suffice : 
"Tiou, tioti, tiou tiou — Spe, tiou, squa — Tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, tio, tlx — (3outio, coutio, coutio, 
coutio— Squo, squo, squo, squo — Tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzu, tzi — Corror, tiou, squa, 
pipiqui — Zozozozozozozozozozozozo, zirrhading ! — Tsissisi, tsissisisisisisisis — Dzorre, dzorre, dzorre, 
dzorre, hi — Tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, tzatu, dzi — Dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, dlo, 
dlo — Quio, tr rrrrrrrr itz — Lu, lu, lu, lu^ ly, ly, ly, ly, lie, lie, lie, lie — Quio didl li lulylie — Hagur, 
gurr, quipio ! — Coui, coui, coui, coui, qui, qui, qui, gui, gui, gui, gui — Goll goU goll goll guia 
hadadoi — Couigui, horr, ha diadia dill si ! — Hezezezezezezezezezezezezezezezeze couar ho dze hoi 
— Quia, quia, quia, quia, quia, quia, quia, quia ti — Ki, Id, ki, io, io, io, ioioioio ki — Lu ly li le lai 
la, leu lo, didl io quia — Kigaigaigaigaigaigaigaigai guiagaigaigai couior dzio dzio pi." 
We think it will be equally surprising to those who have and those who have not heard the 
Nightingale, to learn that this is given to the world as a literal transcript of the song of that 
renowned bird, and by one of its greatest admirers and most profound students — the celebrated 
author of the work on Cage Birds — Dr. Bechstein. An attempt to transcribe the song of our cat- 
bird or brown thrush, and still more surely the mocking-bird, would present a similar wilderness 
of inexpressible syllables. The simple truth is, that the melody of birds can neither be written nor 
*From " The Atlantic Monthly" for October, 1858, which has an interesting article on " The Birds of the Orchard 
and the Garden." 
