6. The lazy wheel that hung so dry Whirls wildly in the misty dark, And through the miller's dream. 7. Loud torrent unto torrent calls, 8. They meet, and through the lowlands sweep, Proclaiming to the distant towns T. B. READ. 3. BIRDS OF SPRING. HOSE who have passed the winter in the country, are sensi indications of Spring; and of these, none are more delightful than the first notes of the birds. 2. The appearance of the blue-bird, so poetically yet truly described by Wilson, gladdens the whole landscape. You hear his soft warble in every field. He sociably approaches your habitation, and takes up his residence in your vicinity.3 3. The happiest bird of our spring, however, and one that rivals the European lark, in my estimation, is the Boblincon, or Boblink, as he is commonly called. He arrives at this choice portion of the year, which, in this latitude, answers to the description of the month of May so often given by the poets. With us it begins about the middle of May, and lasts until nearly the middle of June. 4. Earlier than this, winter is apt to return on its traces, and to blight1 the opening beauties of the year; and later than this, begin the parching, and panting, and dissolving heats of 1 'Spec' tral, pertaining to the appearance of a person who is dead; ghostly. In di cà' tion, mark; sign.-3 Vi cin'i ty, neighborhood.♦Blight, injure or destroy. - summer. But in this genial' interval nature is in all her freshness and fragrance: "the rains are over and gone, the flowers appear upon the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle3 is heard in the land." 5. The trees are now in their fullest foliage and brightest verdure; the woods are gay with the clustered flowers of the laurel; the air is perfumed by the sweet-brier and the wild-rose; the meadows are enameled with clover-blossoms; while the young apple, the peach, and the plum begin to swell, and the cherry to glow, among the green leaves. 6. This is the chosen season of revelry' of the boblink. He comes amidst the pomp and fragrance of the season; his life scems all sensibility and enjoyment, all song and sunshine. He is to be found in the soft bosoms of the freshest and sweetest meadōws; and is most in song when the clover is in blossom. He perches on the topmost twig of a tree, or on some long, flaunting weed, and as he rises and sinks with the breeze, pours forth a succession of rich, tinkling notes; crowding one upon another, like the outpouring melody of the sky-lark, and possessing the same rapturous' character. 7. Sometimes he pitches from the summit of a tree, begins his song as soon as he is upon the wing, and flutters tremulously down to the earth, as if overcome with ecstasy" at his own music. Sometimes he is in pursuit of his paramour;12 always in full song, as if he would win her by his melody; and always with the same appearance of intoxication13 and delight. 8. Of all the birds of our groves and meadows, the boblink was the envy of my boyhood. He crossed my path in the sweetest weather, and the sweetest season of the year, when all nature called to the fields, and the rural feeling throbbed in every bosom; but when I, luckless urchin! was doomed to be 1Gè' ni al, favorable; natural.—2 Frå' grance, sweetness of smell.— *Turtle (têr'tl), here means a dove or pigeon.- Fò' li age, leaves.— "Verd' ure, greenness.- En åm' eled, ornamented; appearing like glass. Rev' el ry, extreme animal enjoyment; noisy feasting. Sen si bil' ity, state of being easily affected; delicacy of feeling. Flåunt' ing, spreading out loosely." Råpt' ur ous, full of joy.—' 11 Ec' sta sy, excessive or overpowering delight." Pår' a mour, partner in love." In toxi ca' tion, drunkenness; an extreme elevation of spirits.—" Rural (rð'ral), belonging to or suiting the country. mewed up, during the livelong day, in that purgatory' of boyhood, a school-room, it seemed as if the little varlet mocked at me, as he flew by in full song, and sought to taunt me with his happier lot. Oh, how I envied him! No lessons, no tasks, no hateful school; nothing but holiday, frolic, green fields, and fine weather! 9. Further observation and experience have given me a different idea of this little feathered voluptuary, which I will venture to impart for the benefit of my school-boy readers, who may regard him with the same unqualified envy and admiration which I once indulged. I have shown him only as I saw him at first, in what I may call the poetical part of his career, when he in a manner devoted himself to elegant pursuits and enjoyments, and was a bird of music, and song, and taste, and sensibility, and refinement. While this lasted, he was sacred from injury; the věry school-boy would not fling a stone at him, and the merest rustic would pause to listen to his strain. But mark the difference. 10. As the year advances, as the clover-blossoms disappear, and the spring fades into summer, his notes cease to vibrate on the ear. He gradually gives up his elegant tastes and habits, doffs his poetical and professional suit of black, assumes a russet or rather dusty garb, and enters into the grōss enjoyments of common, vulgar birds. He becomes a bon vivant, a mere gormand; thinking of nothing but good cheer, and gormandizing10 on the seeds of the long grasses on which he lately swung, and chanted so musically. 11. He begins to think there is nothing like "the joys of the table," if I may be allowed to apply that convivial" phrase to his indulgences. He now grows discontented with plain, everyday fare, and sets out on a gastronom'ical12 tour, in search of foreign luxuries. He is to be found in myriads among the reeds 1 Pur' ga to ry, place of punishment.-2 Vår' let, a saucy fellow; here means the Boblink.- Nothing (nůth' ing).— Vo lůpt'u a ry, a seeker of pleasure alone.- Re fine' ment, high state of cultivation.--" Vl' bråte, move backward and forward; quiver. Gårb, dress. 8 Bon vivant (bỏng” về vắng), a good liver.— Gormand, a glutton.—1 Gor mandizing, eating greedily." Con viv'i al, relating to a feast; jovial; gay. Gas tro nom' ic al, relating to the stomach; seeking something to gratify appetite. of the Delaware, banqueting on their seeds; grows corpuient' with good feeding, and soon acquires the unlucky renown of the or'tolan. Wherever he goes, pop! pop! pop! the rusty firelocks of the country are cracking on every side; he sees his companions falling by thousands around him; he is the reedbird, the much sought for tid-bit3 of the Pennsylvanian epicure.1 12. Does he take warning, and reform? Not he! He wings his flight still further south, in search of other luxuries. We hear of him gorging himself in the rice-swamps; filling himself with rice almost to bursting; he can hardly fly for corpulency. Last stage of his career, we hear of him spitted by dozens, and served up on the table of the gormand, the most vaunted' of southern dainties, the rice-bird of the Carolinas. 13. Such is the story of the once musical and admired, but finally sensual and persecuted Boblink. It contains a moral worthy the attention of all little birds and little boys; warning them to keep to those refined and intellectual pursuits, which raised him to so high a pitch of popularity, during the early part of his career; but to eschew all tendency to that grōss and dissipated indulgence, which brought this mistaken little bird to an untimely end. W. IRVING. 1. 4. THE NOTES OF THE BIRDS. ELL do I love those various harmonies WELL That ring so gayly in Spring's budding woods, 2. If thou art pained with the world's noisy stir, Or crazed with its mad tumults, and weigh'd down 'Cor' pu lent, fat; large.-2 Or' to lan, a small bird found in the southern part of Europe, and particularly in the Island of Cyprus, es teemed as a great delicacy as food.--3 Tid-bit, a delicate morsel.—1 Ep'i cure, one given to luxury and pleasure. - Våunt' ed, boasted. In tel lect' u al, relating to the mind. Es chew', avoid. — Hår' mo nies, musical strains, or sounds, differing in pitch and quality, so blended as to produce concord.-'Cops' es, woods of small growth. With any of the ills of human life; If thou art sick and weak, or mourn'st the loss Of brethren gone to that far distant land Then turn into the peaceful woods and hear 3. How rich the varied choir!' The unquiet finch Her last year's wither'd nest. But when the gloom 5. In the last days of Autumn, when the corn 6. The bearded wheat in sheaves, then peals abroad Lone whip-poor-will,3 1Choir (kwir), a company of singers.—2 Kål' mi a, a kind of evergreen shrub, having beautiful white or pink flowers; sometimes incorrectly called laurel, and also ivy-bush.- Whip-poor-will, a bird like the nighthawk. |
