Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-05-12
MEADOW LARK'S SONG
IS SONG OF SUMMER
There is Always the Quality Of
June in This Singers
Sweet Voice.

Sunlight and grassy calm, warmth Of
the open fields, fragrance Of clover.
Richness of fertile earth, daisyeyea gold
and white, rliincx spires all agleafn IN the
June morning. Dew on the timothy
henvy with pollen Song Of the summers
dawn, song Of the summer soul Meadow
lark singing Of earth that is heaven.
When you hear the meadow lark 8 song
on cold spring day you think Of June.
There is the June quality IN that rich
voice OF all tho birds of March, meadow
lark is the only one whose song seems
properly to belong to summer. Bluebird
is springs whisper; towhee IL Mays
tnklnp voice for the lily-bells of Mays
woods; robin IL the "newsboy tenor" of the
door yard redwing is the swanp'a wetuess
set to music Only the meadow lark sings
of summer and brings summer with hun
wherever he sings.
Pewee and snippy wren, long-winded
vireo. marvel of wildwood thrush, cascad-
inp hobollnk these sing the summer songs
summers own melodies These are not
heard i'm March, nor heard in April Only
the meadow lark brings spring TO summer
Cur meadow lark lives on the ground
and eats bugs He has no aspiration to fly
high and sec far The cool sechsion Of the
forest does not lure him. Ills feet are more
comfortable on the ground than on q twig
He sniggles his nest among the grass tufts,
and he seldom wanders to see what is be
yond the hedge.
Such n solid, comfortable, competent
bird
All the meadow lark 5 poetry is in his
song. He looks like an honorable alder
man. and he flies like an aerial ice wagon
A noisy and efTortful beating Of wings
may carry him almost to tho top Of small
tree When he attains his perch he IS
likely to be out of breath and in no mood
for song. 4 bird that flies SO bunglinglv
must have n bard time in the business Of
migration No wonder some Of the hardicr
meadow larks choose to stay with rs aIl
winter A few months Of shivcrlng arc n
reasonable price 70 pay Tor exemption
from wearying travel.
Wood thrush and bobolnk, as unlike rs
a carrot and 4 cart horse, are onT finest
singers Thrashcr and song sparrow and
rose-breastcd grosbeak are close followers
II il hard to say that any Of them, lead
ers or seconds. are markedly superior 70
our minstrel Of the grass The lark $
music has the depth of the thrush. the
cIearness Of the song sparrow, the JOY Of
the hol5oIink, the variety Of the rosc-breast
And only the thrush hns song more dis
tinctly human in quality Lark and
thrush are easily initiated by human
fnir1ies. song sparrow and bobolink can
not ne initiated 1T all The lark $ song has
hut 4 few notes. but they are always com
hined in delicious melody. One grassland
ARIA that may he heard by him who
listens Is precisely the first four notes Of the
"toreador song in Carmen. lnasmuch
as BIxet probably never heard an Ameri-'
can meadow lark we maybe compelled
to accuse tho meadow lark Of filehing the
tune from Blzet
This year, quite as usual, the meadow
Iarks came IN early March. And hoy they.
lid sing when March made himself ike
summer Eecry brown tleid was flooded
with tic rich VINE Of their yaealisfn. They
paraded and postured they scourged the
ar IN their graceIess flights. And they
sang They sang all day
Y.a! could lie on dry brook bank in
March and listen to the meadow laTkz
and dream OF June's dew-Tnolstened
daisies amid the fairy fluff balls of the
dandelious
Then came winter TO poster girl April
SHOWS and grim IeicIes and wild roaming
vines, accompanied January back from
his northern tomb, Apr7i's pink toes were
frost-bitten and she wished she had more
clothes The little soft leaves that March
had coaxed out 10 greet his usually per
sonahle successor we're cnilled and blasted
And most il the birds we're altogether
busy irving 10 keep warm. The meadow
lark. for almost two weeks. forgot 70 sing
Vow he i singing again. StarneliIee
melody + ripping over the new grass. he
song of June IS IN the still doubtful ar
The meadow vlolets that stopped grow
ing when April stopped smiling, are grow
lag once more Herb Barbara. after wait
ing ali winter ard al through April
mock winter. is climbing Up to golden
eayety in the lark door ward Clover Is
listening, too and unfolding q million
dainty trefoils When meadow lark sings
al his meadow garden sings with him its