84 
INSESSORES. 
song, and taste, and sensibility, and refinement. While 
this lasted he was sacred from injury; the very school- 
boy would not fling a stone at him, and the merest 
rustic would pause to listen to his strain. But mark 
the difference. As the year advances, as the clover 
blossoms disappear, and the spring fades into sum- 
mer, he gradually gives up his elegant tastes and 
habits, doffs his poetical suit of black, assumes a rus- 
set, dusky garb, and sinks to the gross enjoyment of 
common vulgar birds. His notes no longer vibrate 
on the ear; he is stuffing himself with the seeds of 
the tall weeds, on which he lately swung and chaunted 
so melodiously. He has become a ‘ bon vivant/ a 
6 gourmand •/ with him now there is nothing like the 
( joys of the table/ In a little while he grows tired 
of plain, homely fare, and is off on a gastronomical 
tour in quest of foreign luxuries. We next hear of 
him, with myriads of his kind, banqueting among 
the reeds of the Delaware, and grown corpulent with 
good feeding. He has changed his name in travel- 
ing; Boblincon no more, he is the Reed-bird now, 
the much-sought-for titbit of Pennsylvania epicures, 
the rival in unlucky fame of the ortolan ! Wherever 
he goes, pop ! pop ! pop ! every rusty firelock in the 
country is blazing away. He sees his companions 
falling by thousands around him. 
u Does he take warning and reform ? Alas, not 
he ! Incorrigible epicure ! again he wings his flight. 
The rice-swamps of the South invite him. He gorges 
himself among them almost to bursting ; he can scarcely 
fly for corpulency. He has once more changed his 
