WITH THE BIRDS 
From the Atlantic Monthly , May, 1865 . 
N OT in the spirit of exact science, but 
old acquaintance, would 1 celebrate 
rather with the freedom of love and 
some of the minstrels of the field and 
forest,—these accredited and authenti¬ 
cated poets of Nature. 
All day, while the rain has pattered 
and murmured, have I heard the notes 
of the Robin and the Wood-Thrush; the 
Red-Eyed Flycatcher has pursued his 
game within a few feet of my window, 
darting with a low, complacent warble 
amid the dripping leaves, looking as dry 
and unruffled as if a drop of rain had 
never touched him; the Cat-Bird has 
flirted and attitudinized on my garden- 
fence; the House-Wren stopped a moment 
between the showers, and indulged in a 
short, but spirited, rehearsal under a large 
leaf in the grape-arbor; the King-Bird 
