The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-05-02

eternal" in that sanguine breast.
But it was robins forerunner that
made the year 1895 memorable by his
absence from many customary haunts.
Upon the air no bluebird's wing
Shook out the colors of the spring
Upon the air no bluebird's note
On springs bright wavelet seemed to float
Yet natures sacrificial mood must not
be held solely accountable for the holo-
caust of song. The curator of Smith
sonian Institution corroborated the
statement of others that thousands of
bluebirds were sold in the game markets
Of Washington, D. c.; and any observer
may note the part that they play in the
farce of fashion. 1t would seem that
irony of fate could no further go than to
consign this exquisite bird to tomb in
the full stomach of an epicure or a glib
bet on the empty head of wording.
The bluebird's mission has ever been
to proclaim the gospel of spring In the
wide waste of field and forest, no green
leaf cheers his advent; but when even
human eye may note the swelling buds,
what of the birds keener vision and pro-
phetic instincts? Other birds are seen
before they are heard; but the bluebird
is true forerunner-"only a voice." l
know of no sound in nature that takes
more direct route to the heart than that
nd NH oh frIa ~
pauses for an enchanting moment over
ones head and fills the pause with a
rondeau, it is as if blue wavelets of
sound were tapping the white beach of
memory. Forgotten springtimes show
their sweet child faces, and the very
graves give up their dead. Many birds
have a wider vocabulary. but of one
only did Lanier write:
"a wise bluebird
Puts in his little heavenly word
1t is the exquisite quality of his song
which renders it the delight, yet the de-
spair of poets. Four syllables embrace
it; but no word of man has rendered
them, and with each hearing they grow
less transferable. ~
1t is easy to follow Michelet in his
highest flights with 1.-THE Bird,p when
one sees this incarnation of beauty,
grace and benefaction. Is not such
casket worthy to enshrine soul?s That
Immortality is not limited to our race is
the conjecture Of many naturalists. An
Agassiz, an Audubon, Michelet-were
they not closer to God in his works than
their kind? And did they not fathom
secrets hidden from the worldly-wise
and revealed to natures children? Au-
dubon in the forest solitude, falling upon
his knees and pouring out his grateful
heart to God when the woodthrush
summoned him, was but needing Gods
voice; and Michelet in his impassioned
pleading for the bird, mans best friend,
with man, too often the birds bitterest
foe. was Gods ambassador.
The great Frenchman did not know
our bluebird. Its closest of kin. the Eng
fish robin redbreast. sings in his lovely
prose; but the bluebird is unknown
to the Old World. He is the product OF
our bluer skies and more dazzling SUM-
shine; allied to mother earth by his
tawny breast. His disposition is as
tranquil as the unclouded sky from
which he seems to have dropped. His
wooing is persuasive though ardent; and
only keen sense of wrong can disturb
the even tenor of his way. An over-eager
rival may provoke chastisement; and an
interloper in the house pre-empted by
"his most serene birdship," will meet
with spirited resistance, quite conso-
nant with the gentlest natures when
pricked by injustice. At the first onset
of the English sparrows, the bluebirds
held their ground with the spirit of
Bozzaris. Many boxing match with
the housewren had been their training
school; but the clannishness and dog
gedness of the British brown coats, has
won the day in long fight; and the air
is no longer "full of bluebirds" as in
Thoreau's Springtime. The dainty bird
house fitted for their occupancy, stands
vacant or makes travesty of home for
the sparrows; while the little bluecoats
retreat before the invaders of the SOIL
Advance.