56 
MUSCICAPA TYRANNUS. 
Par in tKe soutK, where vast Maragnon flows, 
And boundless forests unknown wilds enclose ; 
Vine-tangled shores, and suffocating woods, 
Parch’d up with heat, or drown’d with pouring floods 
Where each extreme alternately prevails, 
And Nature sad their rovuges bewails ; 
Lo ! high iu air, above those trackless wastes, 
With Spring’s returu the king bird hither hastes ; 
Coasts the famed Gulf,*’ and, from his height, explores 
Its thousand streams, its long indented shores, 
Its plains immense, wide 0 ])’ning on the day. 
Its lakes and isles, where feather’d millions play ; 
All tempt nut him : till, gazing from on high, 
Columbia’s regions wide below him lie ; 
1 here end his wand’rings and his wish to roam, 
There lie his native woods, his fields, hia /tome ; 
Down, circling, he descemls, from azure heights. 
And on a full-blow u sassafras alights. 
Fatigued and silent, for a while he views 
His ol<i frequented haunts, and shades recluse. 
Sees brothers, comrades, every h<uir arrive — 
Hears, Imnmiing round, the tenants of the hive ; 
Love fires his breast ; he wooes, and soon is blest; 
And in the blooming orchard builds his nest. 
Come now, ye aiwards ! ye whom heav’n disdains. 
Who boast the iuippiest home — the richest plains ; 
On whom, perchance, a wife, an infant’s eye 
Hang as their hope, and on your arm rely ; 
Yet, when the hour of danger and dismay 
Comes on that country, sneak in holes away, 
Shrink from the perils ye were bound to face. 
And leave those babes and country to disgrace ; 
Come here, (if such we have,) ye dastard herd ! 
And kneel in dust fjefore this noble bird. 
When the speckM eggs within his nest appear. 
Then glows affection, ardent and sincere ; 
No disconl sours him when his mate he mwts; 
But each warm heart with mutual kindness beats. 
For her repast, he bears along the lea 
The bloated gadfly, and the balmy bee ; 
For her repose scours o’er th’ adjacent farm, 
Whence hawks might dart, or lurking foes iUarm ; 
For now abroad a band of ruffians prey. 
The crow, the cuckoo, and th’ insidious jay ; 
* Of Mexico. 
