cxxii 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
are full of them ! red, orange, blue, aud most every color. 0, 1 cau gather you 
a whole parcel of them, much handsomer thaa these, all growing in our own 
woods ' Shall I, 'ma ? Shall I go and bring you more ?' The good woman 
received the bunch of flowers with a smile of affectionate complacency; and 
after admiring for some time the beautiful simplicity of nature, gave her wil- 
ling consent ; and the little fellow went off, on the wings of ecstasy, to execute 
his delightful commission. 
" The similitude of this little boy's enthusiasm to my own, struck me ; and 
the reader will need no explanations of mine to uiake the application. Should 
my country receive with the same gi-acious indulgence the specimens which I 
here humbly present her; should she express a desire for me to yu and hving 
her more, the highest wishes of my ambition will be gratified ; for, in the language 
of my little friend, our wJioIe woods arc full of them I and I can collect hun- 
dreds more, mueli handsomer than these." 
In a work abounding with so many excellencies, it would not be difficult to 
point out passages of merit, any one of which would give the author a just 
claim to the title of a describer of no ordinary powers. 
We select the following description, from the history of the Wood Thrush : 
"At whatever time the wood thrusli may arrive, he soon announces his presence 
in the woods. With the dawn of the succeeding morning, mounting to the 
top of some tall tree, that rises from a low thick-shaded part of the woods, he 
pipes his few, but clear and musical, notes in a kind of ecstasy ; the prelude 
or symphony to which strongly resembles the double-tongueing of a German 
flute, and sometimes the tinkling of a small bell. The whole song consists of 
five or six parts, the last note of each of which is in such a tone, as to leave 
the conclusion evidently suspended; the finale is finely managed, and with 
such charming effect, as to soothe and tranquillize the mind, and to seem 
sweeter and mellower at each successive repetition. Rival song.sters, of the 
same species, challenge each other from different parts of the wood, seeming to 
vie for softer tones, and more exquisite responses. During the burning heat 
of the day they are comparatively mute; but in the evening the same melody 
is renewed, and continued long after sunset. Even in dark, wet and gloomy 
weather, when scarce a single chirp is heard from any other bird, the clear 
notes of the wood thrush thrill through the dropping woods, from morning to 
night ; and it may truly be said that the sadder the day the sweeter is his 
song." 
Perhaps my admiration of this passage may be dependent, in some measure, 
upon the association of ideas, having been accustomed to frequent the favorite 
haunts of this exquisite musician, which are " low thick-shaded hollows, 
through which a small brook or rill meanders, overhung with alder bushes that 
arc mantled with vines." But I can truly declare that I could never read it 
in an audible voice, the intenseness of my feelings always overpowering me. 
He thus delightfully introduces his history of the Barn Swallow : " There 
are but few persons in the United States unacquainted with this gay, innocent, 
and active little bird. Indeed the whole tribe are so distinguished from the 
rest of small birds by their sweeping rapidity of flight, their peculiar aerial 
evolutions of wing over our fields and rivers, and through our very streets, 
