. Bird-land echoes; . f softmaterials, and is very durable. The storms of thefollowing autumn and winter do not always scatterit to the winds. Waiting for Warblers. 8i To give the story of the redstart from May toOctober is to write the history of a summer, andI scarcely dare assume that task. Redstarts andazaleas, dog-wood, violets, and snowy wind-flowers ;young leaves as dainty as the choicest blossoms,green grass, and all the lush growths that clusterin the marsh ; fresh new earth unmarred as yet bychilling storm or wilting sunshine ; gentle, invigo-rating warmth and all that follow in its
. Bird-land echoes; . f softmaterials, and is very durable. The storms of thefollowing autumn and winter do not always scatterit to the winds. Waiting for Warblers. 8i To give the story of the redstart from May toOctober is to write the history of a summer, andI scarcely dare assume that task. Redstarts andazaleas, dog-wood, violets, and snowy wind-flowers ;young leaves as dainty as the choicest blossoms,green grass, and all the lush growths that clusterin the marsh ; fresh new earth unmarred as yet bychilling storm or wilting sunshine ; gentle, invigo-rating warmth and all that follow in its train ; spring-tide and music ; redstarts and all vernal beauty. The sleepy sunshine of long summer afternoons,the dense shade beneath the thick and dusty leaves,the quiet of mid-day hours, the noiseless flow of theunresting tide, and with it all the agile, flashing, ever-flitting redstarts, their wiiy notes as ceaseless as thoseof creaking crickets,—a summer song that neitherangry storm nor savage heat can CHAPTER III. THE MASTERS OF MELODY. IT is humiliating to think that we have no tame wildbirds, and yet we might have many. Thoreauproved this while living in his Walden hut, and it hasbeen shown time and again that man, and not thebirds, is at fault. They are driven off, and man is thedriver. Now—and perhaps it has been so always—there are too many farmers who complain if a robineats a cherry or the cat-birds raid the strawberrybeds. These are the men who too often rule in thecommunity, and between their greed and others indif-ference the birds that would otherwise crowd aboutour door-yards are not only driven to the fields andorchard, but persecuted even there. What natureconsiderately gave to this country is rejected, and analien bird, a veritable outcast of featherdom, hasbeen received with open arms. A hundred Englishsparrows perch upon the ridge-pole and creep be-tween the slats of the closed shutters, and lucky arewe if, in winter, there is a single rob
Size: 2530px × 988px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1896
