772 
THE BIRDS THAT WE SEE. 
spring. But the father, the gay and she can. But no trial is too great for 
ardent lover, is, I fear, sadly lacking in her constancy, and in due time the lit- 
such admirable emotions ; there is yet tie redwings are fully grown and fledged. 
to be written a dark and discreditable 
chapter in his life. 
We have seen how devoid of parental 
affection is the cowbird. 
We know that in the far / 
South there are other 
blackbirds that leave 
the care of the eggs and 
young entirely to the fe¬ 
males, and go off* to lead 
a merry bachelor life as 
soon as incubation be¬ 
gins, and the redwing, 
it seems, is not altogether 
without the family taint, 
for I have, more than 
once, met with evidence 
that his love - fires lan¬ 
guish sadly as the honey¬ 
moon wanes, and his de¬ 
votion to his home duties 
succumbs entirely as 
soon as the joys of love 
and when strong enough on the wing 
they flj^ with her to rejoin their shame¬ 
less father in the distant marshes. 
Bobolink. 
are exchanged for its 
responsibilities. He becomes, in fact. But the day is advancing. The famil- 
prone to take his quiet departure in iar robin has ceased to sing, and is forag- 
company of a merry host of similar de- ing on the lawn, stamping cumiingiy 
linquents, leaving his irre 23 roachable with his feet close to a worm-hole, then 
wife to provide for the family as best waiting cpiietly, with his head on one 
side, to see the effect, and so ma¬ 
noeuvring until, at length, the worm 
ventures out, but only to be seized, 
and, after a struggle, borne away to 
his young in the broad nest of mud 
and sticks that is saddled on the 
large a 23 ple-bough in the adjacent 
orchard. 
The wood thrush [p. 774], high up 
in some shade-tree, pours out his 
liquid “pee-rool-ya-ta-leeT then 
rings his little silver bell, sings an¬ 
other bar, and again plays his own 
accompaniment, and all the while 
looks serenely down on you, beneath 
him in every sense of the word. AVith 
a fair glass 3^011 can see him clearl}^, 
about eight inches long, above of a 
bright cinnamon color, which is 
brightest on the head, and all be¬ 
low white, with large black spots. 
His nest is somewhat like that of 
the robin ; in fact tlie^^ are near 
relatives, and the latter seems proud 
Meadow Lark. of the comiectioii, foi’ lie often calls 
