The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-06

and uninspiring song, 1 should feel
sad lack in our summer days should this
happy fellow be removed. When other
songsters are silent he still sings in his
the heat of the day, and if mis- plumage be
not SO fastidiously elegant as the orioles, it
Is. nevertheless, snowy and gay.
AT sunset the cicada is sounding his
high, palpitating love-caIl from the
meadow, when suddenly, out of the sacred
calm of evening, full and rich and varied
as the tones of an organ, swells the song
of thrush. The most inspired singer
of all, with his rich, gurgling full
ness of rapturous sound. has waited
until all the lesser MINISTRIES have done
their part in the days chorus, and now,
from his bush in the thicket, as the
shadows darken around him. he becomes
Infused with the subtle delight of the sur
set sky, the sweet odors of the evening and
the cool air of the night. "Qui, qui, qui,
quia, quia, quia," he sings, with his
little throat shaking and trembling with
the resonant quality of the sound. Well
can he afford to be clad in olive,
and dusky, with an obscurely spotted
breast, with such wealth of song at his
command! His whole composition is too
dellcately attuned to admit of snowy
colors. Notice his large bright eye, his
half-calm, half-timid manners as he stands
upon twig in the obscurity of the foliage,
his long slender legs and delicate beak.
he is creature apart from the vulgar
throng that surround him, and the ex-
clusiveness of his hours of song show that
be is not unconscious OF his superiority.
As the month of May advances the
landscape assumes more and more the
typical aspect of summer. The rains have
ceased for the season and already the
well travelled roads in the country are
growing dusty.
From bush by the road vivacious,
high-pitched song issues. 1t is intricate,
rapid and varied. At times we catch such
hastily uttered phrases as the following:
.'Tit-a-trea- trea-trea; tree, tree, trea, tree,
tree; trlt-a-tree, tree, tree; but the end
ing of the song is frequently lost in con-
fused tumble of sweet tones. live are pa
tient we may detect small blue bird
considerable less than the sparrow in size,
with restless. animated movements to cor
respond with his song. 1t is the Lazuli
bunting, one of the commonest of the
minor songsters of summer. The plumage
OF the male is very gay, with the back of
azure and breast of reddish brown;
but the female, like so many Of
her sisters, is rather obscurelv
robed in brown, with but a
trace of the bright colors of her mate.
Their nest is cup-shaped structure of
grasses, in which are deposited four or FIVE
though occasionally slightly dotted with
points of brown.
Continuing our walk, flash of gold
crosses the road and disappears among the
thick growth of bushes. Thither let us
follow where the summer warbler is sing
ing his high vivacious crescendo of song,
like sudden fragment of Joy. A little
sharp fine metallic tsit arrests the ear, as
we pass through clump of scrub oaks.
1t is well to pause when new note greets
the ear in the course of woodland ram
bic, and, with eyes alert await devel-
opments; for the birds are always
ready to display themselves to the
unobtrusive observer. A little brown
perky bird soon f1irts into view and greets
us with low, harsh, rasping chatter,
which at times changes to more gutteral
tone. 1t is the Western house wren, a
bird very closely resembling his Eastern
relative, but he is living in more undo
mesticated state. See him bob about from
branch to branch, his tail thrown back.
his wings half relaxed and head down
ward as often as up. Soon the mate
appears, and both birds show very marked
signs of uneasiness. Their nest is certainly
not far off. A search of the neighboring
liveoak linn bs discloses scar on the under
side OF branch where few fine sticks
protrude, and this is the secret of the
anxiety of the parent bird. They need
not be uneasy, though, for however preda-
tory our intentions might be the hole is
far too small to admit the insertion of a
hand and the seven or eight heavily
sprinkIed brown eggs are quite safe from
all intruders
Full of the beauty and wonder of the