Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-08-19

English
Singing Birds

IN ia 1850
1t was not a loud song, but very mu-
steal and attractive, and the bird is
said to sing practically all through he
year. The son of the wren inter
ested me much, because 1t was not in
the least like that Of our house wrens.
but, on the contrary, like that Of our
winter wren. The theme Is the same
as the winter wren's, but the song did
not seem to me to be so brilliantly mu-
steal as that Of the tiny singer Of the
north woods. The sedge warbler san
in the thick reeds a hooking ventrilo-
quail lay, which reminded me at times
of he less pronounced parts of our
yellow breasted chats song. The
cuckoOis cry was singularly attractive
and musical, far more SO than the
rolling, many times repeated, note of
our rain-crow.
Ten days later, at Sycamore Hill, l
was among my own birds, and was
much interested as l listened to and
looked at them in remembering the
notes and actions of the birds | had
seen in England. On the evening of
the first day | sat In my rocking
chair on the broad veranda, looking
across the Oun towards the glory Of
the sunset The thickly grassed hill
side slOped down in front of me to a
belt of forest from which rose the
golden, ~leisurely Ginning of the WOO
thrushes, chanting their vespers
through the still air came the MARBLE
of vireo and tanager; and after night
fall we heard the flight song of an
oven bird from the same belt Of tim
Der. Overhead an OriOle sang in the
weeping elm, now n then breaking
his song to scold like an overgrown
wren. Song sparrOws and cat birds
sang in the shrubbery; one robin had
built it's nest over the front, and one
Over the back door, and there was a
chippy's nest in the wisteria vine by
the porch. During the next "a hours |
saw and heard, either right around the
house or while walking own to battle
through the woods, the following AZ
birds:
Little Green Heron, Quail, Red Tail
ed Hawk. Yellow Billed Cuckoo.
Kingfsher, Flicker, Hummingbird.
Swift, Meadow Lark, Red Winged
BlackDlrd, Sharp Tailed Finch, Song
Sparrow. Chipping Sparrow, Bush
Sparrow, Purple Finch, Baltimore
Oriole, C~owbunting, Robin, Scarlet
Thrush, Thrasher, Cat Bird, Scarlet
Tanager, Red-Eyed Vireo, Yellow War
bier, Black-Throated Green Warbler,
King Bird, Wood Pewee, Grow, Blue
Jay, Cedar Bird, Maryland Yellow
Throat, C~hickadee, Black and White
Creeper, Barn Swallow, White Breasted
Swallow, Oven Bird, Thistlefinch, Yes
perfinch, Indigo Bunting, Towhee,
Grasshopper Sparrow and Screech
Owl.
| sent the companion Of my English
walk John Burroughs Birds and
Poets" John Burroughs life work is
beginning to have It's full effect in
many different lines. When he first
wrote there were few men of letters
in our country who knew nature at
first hand. Now there are many who
delight in our birds, who know their
songs, who keenly love all that belongs
to out-Of-dOOrs life. For instance, Mad
ison Cawein and Ernest McGaffy have
for a number of years written of our
woods and fields, of the birds and the
flowers, as only those can write who
join to love of nature the gift of OBJ
servatiOn and the gift of description.
Mr.. Cawein is a Kentuckian; and an
other Kentuckian, Miss Julia Stockton
Dinsmore, in the little volume OF
poems which she has just published,
includes many which describe with
beauty and charm the sights and
sounds so dear to all of us who
know American country life. Miss
DinsmOre knows Kentucky, and the
gulf coast of Louisiana, and the great
plains of North Dakota; and she knows
also the regions that lie outside OF
what can be seen with material vision.
For years in our family we have had
some of her poems in the scrap book
cut from newspapers when we knew
nothing about her except the initials
signed in the verses. Only one who
sees with the eyes of the spirit as we'll
as the eyes of the body could have
written the "~Threnody," c~uriously at
tractive in it's simplicity and pathos,
with which the little book opens. 1t
contains many poems that make a sim
bird and robin, redbird and field lark
and whippoorwill, just as she knows
southern rivers and western plains;
she knows rushing winds and running
waters and the sights and sounds of
lonely places; and moreover, she
knows and almost tells those hidden
things Of the heart which never find
complete utterance.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT