on the migration of birds. 
39 
state of the air succeeds. We are then so enlivened by the 
transition from extreme cold, to a temperature comparatively 
warm, that we can listen with pleasure to the enfeebled notes 
of some of the song birds. How admirable the contrivance ! 
There are several birds which have no continued flow of 
notes, but a kind of chirp only, consisting of some variety of 
sounds. During a long continued frost, the earth affords 
many of the feathered tribe so scanty an allowance, that they 
preserve themselves with difficulty from perishing ; a sudden 
thaw takes place, — plenty at once appears, and every crop 
is filled. Tis then we see the redwing and starling assemble 
in large flocks among elms and apple trees, and, by uniting 
their voices, produce a song not in the least discordant, but, 
on the contrary, extremely harmonious. At this time the 
thrush, and even the blackbird, will occasionally afford us 
a transient song ; but it may be observed, that the notes of 
these birds are rather to be considered as plaintive, than lively. 
The lark, too, will sometimes mount in the air, beguiled, as 
it were, by the faint rays of a wintery sun, but his notes are 
then as poor and feeble as the beams that call him forth. 
The robin indeed cheers us with his song during the whole 
of the winter, unless driven off by intense frost, and is the 
only bird I know, whose notes, at this time, would fully 
accord with our feelings, so perfectly do they mingle with the 
surrounding order of things. The goldfinch, were he now 
to open his full song upon us, would be as appalling as the 
tones of the owl in the midst of a fine summer’s day. 
