Song Birds and Water Fowl (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 edition. Excerpt: ... It would seem incongruous if sea fowl had been gifted with the power of song. The mood that animates the oriole and bobolink would ill befit the solemn, lonely grandeur of the ocean's restl2ss life (p, 56). Mistress Cuckoo You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you " Shakespeare. 0 Cuckoo shall I call thee Bird, Or but a wandering Voice?" Wordsworth. mistress cuckoo he cuckoo is a household name with multitudes who, nevertheless, are not only totally ignorant of its appearance and habits, but who know its peculiar sound--"twin notes inseparably paired"--only by their world-wide and accurate imitation. To such it has a singular unreality; while for those, too, who have actual acquaintance with this " wandering Voice," it calls forth a very different sentiment from that which any other bird awakens. Comparatively rare and silent, and very seclusive, its very tone gives it a shadowy atmosphere, and its personality is that of something distant, incorporeal. In contrast with our cheerful, clear-toned songsters, that come prominently into view, the cuckoo is a pensive spirit, lurking among the trees, and at long intervals uttering its singular cry, now harsh and meaningless, now musical and melancholy, a tone as passionless as if it were cold moonlight's incarnation. Its darkened, downward inflected notes spring from the solitude like a purple bending flower from out the earth--an audible inflorescence of the woodland silence. To the general eye its name is, so to speak, not carved in deep and clear-cut granite characters, but is like an antique inscription, richly overgrown and half obliterated by the poetic moss of mystery. Of all the birds common to this region, the cuckoo bears, perhaps, the strongest impress of graceful femininity....