| Show THE OF Y N cl L an 13 I 1 t 1 I 1 do not know any dee deeper er delight in england than to go aorl forth beyond the din and dust of london and nd listen disten to the choir of the birds which seem to islands beyond all other spots the tho fiat distinctive note we hear of the spring is that of the cuckoo kt the voice of the turtle was heard in the land was solomons sign that the winter vinter is over and gone ours is when the strange wild note of the cuckoo is heard a note rote that tells of solitude and far away climes so plainly that one does not marvel at the many superstitions which havo have invested the bird which some even now regard as a lost spirit 1 or a kind of wandering Vin dering jew of birds the naturalists natura lists have aided these superstitions ions by their account of its queer habits how it never builds a nest of its own but lays its eggs in that ot of other birds chiefly the titlark and the hedge sparrow on which latter it seems to lay a 1 spell so that it will shove its own ond spring out of its nest liest to perish in its anxiety to guard and nourish the deposit which the cuckoo has left with it it is a pugnacious bird too this cuckoo salle SaLie sometimes times two of them get to fight ng ov over eranest a nest they have found and the tee duel is fierce never ending till one lies dead at the feet of the other the cuckoo is fourteen in inches chesin in length and twenty five inches from wingtip wing ving tip to wingtip wing tip has yellow eyes pale blue ulue head and back and white breast and belly and long white tipped wings it comes come s early in april andis and is gone at the end of june soon after its voice is heard that of the nightingale sounds forth it is never heard through the day but when the gorgeous spring 0 sunshine flames on the sky like a great rose the nightingale whose plaint was long ago r in in persia attributed to an unrequited passion for the rose begins and sounds late lite into the night the song of the nightingale begins low and rises gently through two or three melodious trills brills to a sustained note which undulates into a pleading earnest plaint well described by milton in 14 the four words most musical most melancholy I 1 have no doubt that the superiority of its charms on the ear be bei i yond that thad of the song of every other bird is a certain ascertain human tone it has it has eccentric habits the nightingale essix is six inches long or more has a brown bill and hazel eyes which have singular expressiveness it is of a brownish olive co color and the quills quilis have reddish fringes ees fes ii cames comes about the middle of april a androes and goes away iii in august to india persia org oro apan where it sings nearly all the year round lound the wood songsters song of england jaro jare are i much tich sweeter than those of amer america c a though in plumage they are anfe inferior rl yr there is an exception however Iio llo wever to every rule ruie alid and I 1 have not here heard any thrush sing so sweetly as the wood thrush of america on the other hand the blackbird I 1 comparatively little noted im ini america is here one of the richest and most moat varied songsters song the note of iise no English thrush to my ear equals it and if its note was only more clear it would almost rival the nightingale it has the advantage advantaged not only of being more bountiful with its music tile the ra groves roves even in the city parks bein being 9 vocal with them all day from early spring to autumn but they are teachable and it if kept Lapart apart from other birds it i is the ishmaelite of birds it will learn earn a variety of tunes it is a large bird ten inches long at least all of these english birds have in their falth faith a bellef belief in n a personal devil that devil is the owl which goeth about in the night seeking whom it may devour when they hear its phelian screech in the night might they give it a wide wid eberth berth but when they find the owl in the daytime day time awaiting the darkness which it loves rather tather than the light the they all get together thrush jay blacky blacic bird redbreast titmouse to chatter around it and frighten it with the impression that it is id surrounded by a hos tile army after observing several british owls owis I 1 have become convinced that minerva knew what she was about abou t when she chose it for her bird the owl is wise robert Brownl browni browning Dg keeps a pot white owl which is one of the cleverest animals I 1 ever saw though ungainly the owl isa is a kindhearted kind hearted bird conf only give it enough mice mico and it will love you w with 1 ith a supreme ann aff affection bation florenc florence nightingale picked up a tiny little owl in in an eastern country many years ago it hardly cared to get out of her way when she was walking she put it in her pocket and that pocket was its chief home for twenty years for it never got any larger it was affectionate ate playful and no greek ever looked with more reverence upon the goddess of wisdom and her owl than the children did upon the kind lady who was known to carry this familiar wherever she went miss nightingales name did not nob make the owl jealous of the more famous bird of the night but perhaps restrained it from screeching when the phil philanthropic anthro le lady went to the crimea she took her te r owl with her and it amused many a poor 0 or wounded soldier whom she nursed at it returned to england with her and died a few years ago loved and respected by all who knew kiyei its many virtues and amiable disposition but there is no bird which can ever really surpass the skylark it is like the tho steady favorite actress whom no tempo ary star like the nightingale fulfilling a brief engagement ever everdia dis lodges from the chief place in the public breast the larrs lark is every old friend you go away to foreign countries and amid gay scenes forget it no sooner do you return and approach your own threshold again thau up it starts crying out how row how row are you old fellow glad to see you alls well as ever here I 1 am at my old place you see fee its ita glad song is the welcome of old england to all hearts that have any sunshine it begins to sing sling before the flowers come and nud will lil ill scatter its musical sunshine hs merrily on lowering days as under the blue skies one oine hardly misses the sunshine huu bun shine who i listening to it I 1 read the other day in herman ta sirane si rane raue folk a charmie char ebar min miu novel a word for the skylark which expresses it absolutely he calls it a hong nong rocket even so it rises into the sk sky y and there seems to burst into a galaxy of notes bilich fall earthward as it were into many colored it loves lovei thu the best for its song as aa shake shakespeare speare maitti it was es the morning n g from whose sliver breast the suu aalseth la in rits riis 11 london cur cincinnati commer cial dal the virtue of prosperity 19 is is 19 temperance the virtue of adversity is fortitude f good Is ia slow it climbs evil is swift it descends why should we marvel that it makes great progress in a short time |
