. Bird-land echoes; . s of the chippy or song-sparrow that the bird is called by most people the swamp-robin, and not one in a thousand knows thatthe bird is a finch and not allied in any way to thethrushes. The chewink is both resident and migratory,yet he is essentially a summer bird. It is when allthat makes for greatest activity is at high-water markthat the chewink sings his loudest strains and chirpstill the woods ring with his earnestness, and he flashesand flits through the lush green growths as if the cares 34 Bird-Land Echoes. of the universe rested upon him. Best of all, thechewinks
. Bird-land echoes; . s of the chippy or song-sparrow that the bird is called by most people the swamp-robin, and not one in a thousand knows thatthe bird is a finch and not allied in any way to thethrushes. The chewink is both resident and migratory,yet he is essentially a summer bird. It is when allthat makes for greatest activity is at high-water markthat the chewink sings his loudest strains and chirpstill the woods ring with his earnestness, and he flashesand flits through the lush green growths as if the cares 34 Bird-Land Echoes. of the universe rested upon him. Best of all, thechewinks taste in matters of locality is always excel-lent. There must be water near. It detests ourusual late summer drought, and quits the neighbor-hood at the earliest intimations of its coming ; butgiven a cool, damp hollowin the woods, a fern-hiddencow-path through the thick-setsproutland, an upland swampwell grown with blueberries, orsome rocky ledge from whichtrickles a little spring,and there will be no hap-pier occu-. Chewink pant ofthe placethan thechew i n , ifa con-stant, self-contented chirping of chczvink is evidencethereof; and to this is added a sprightly song when thebird leaves the ground for a moment and whistles sothat all may hear, cJicc-do, de de dc—de dc. It is anearly song with us, heard often when the shad-blos-soms begin to show, and sometimes earlier, as w^henthe first seekers of arbutus venture into the oak woodsand hear it in some shady hollow w^here the snowperhaps still lingers. In May, when the chorus ofreturning summer is sung in the orchard, I hear an The Inspiring Sparrows. 35 answering song from the chewink hidden in the hill-side, and no less happy than the warblers because adweller in waste places and neglected nooks and cor-ners of the farm. ** Swamp-robin, indeed, is no badname, for swamps are not such desolate spots as thetown-dweller is apt to imagine. To me a swampmeans freedom. It means nature without mans in-terference ; and when we
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1896
