登陆注册
15803900000003

第3章

I have noted but two days' difference in the coming of the song-sparrow between a very early and a very backward spring. This very year I saw the linnets at work thatching, just before a snow-storm which covered the ground several inches deep for a number of days. They struck work and left us for a while, no doubt in search of food. Birds frequently perish from sudden changes in our whimsical spring weather of which they had no foreboding. More than thirty years ago, a cherry-tree, then in full bloom, near my window, was covered with humming-birds benumbed by a fall of mingled rain and snow, which probably killed many of them. It should seem that their coming was dated by the height of the sun, which betrays them into unthrifty matrimony;"So priketh hem Nature in hir corages;"(1)but their going is another matter. The chimney swallows leave us early, for example, apparently so soon as their latest fledglings are firm enough of wing to attempt the long rowing-match that is before them. On the other hand the wild-geese probably do not leave the North till they are frozen out, for I have heard their bugles sounding southward so late as the middle of December. What may be called local migrations are doubtless dictated by the chances of food. I have once been visited by large flights of cross-bills; and whenever the snow lies long and deep on the ground, a flock of cedar-birds comes in mid-winter to eat the berries on my hawthorns. I have never been quite able to fathom the local, or rather geographical partialities of birds. never before this summer (1870) have the king-birds, handsomest of flycatchers, built in my orchard; though I always know where to find them within half a mile. The rose-breasted grosbeak has been a familiar bird in Brookline (three miles away), yet I never saw one here till last July, when I found a female busy among my raspberries and surprisingly bold. I hope she was *prospecting* with a view to settlement in our garden. She seemed, on the whole, to think well of my fruit, and I would gladly plant another bed if it would help to win over so delightful a neighbor.

(1) Chaucer's *Canterbury Tales, Prologue,* line 11.

The return of the robin is commonly announced by the newspapers, like that of eminent or notorious people to a watering-place, as the first authentic notification of spring. And such his appearance in the orchard and garden undoubtedly is. But, in spite of his name of migratory thrush, he stays with us all winter, and Ihave seen him when the thermometer marked 15 degrees below zero of Fahrenheit, armed impregnably within,(1) like Emerson's Titmouse, and as cheerful as he. The robin has a bad reputation among people who do not value themselves less for being fond of cherries. There is, I admit, a spice of vulgarity in him, and his song is rather of the Bloomfield sort, too largely ballasted with prose.

His ethics are of the Poor Richard school, and the main chance which calls forth all his energy is altogether of the belly. He never has these fine intervals of lunacy into which his cousins, the catbird and the mavis, are apt to fall. But for a' that and twice as muckle 's a' that, I would not exchange him for all the cherries that ever came out of Asia Minor. With whatever faults, he has not wholly forfeited that superiority which belongs to the children of nature.

He has a finer taste in fruit than could be distilled from many successive committees of the Horticultural Society, and he eats with a relishing gulp not inferior to Dr. Johnson's. He feels and freely exercises his right of eminent domain. His is the earliest mess of green peas; his all the mulberries I had fancied mine. But if he get also the lion's share of the raspberries, he is a great planter, and sows those wild ones in the woods that solace the pedestrian, and give a momentary calm even to the jaded victims of the White Hills.

he keeps a strict eye over one's fruit, and knows to a shade of purple when your grapes have cooked long enough in the sun.

During the severe drought a few years ago the robins wholly vanished from my garden. I neither saw nor heard one for three weeks. meanwhile a small foreign grape-vine, rather shy of bearing, seemed to find the dusty air congenial, and, dreaming, perhaps of its sweet Argos across the sea, decked itself with a score or so of fair bunches. I watched them from day to day till they should have secreted sugar enough from the sunbeams, and at last made up my mind that I would celebrate my vintage the next morning. But the robins, too, had somehow kept note of them. They must have sent out spies, as did the Jews into the promised land, before I was stirring. When I went with my basket at least a dozen of these winged vintagers bustled out from among the leaves, and alighting on the nearest trees interchanged some shrill remarks about me of a derogatory nature. They had fairly sacked the vine. Not Wellington's veterans made cleaner work of a Spanish town; not Federals or Confederates were ever more impartial in the confiscation of neutral chickens. I was keeping my grapes a secret to surprise the fair Fidele with, but the robins made them a profounder secret to her than I had meant. The tattered remnant of a single bunch was all my harvest-home. How paltry it looked at the bottom of my basket,--as if a humming-bird had laid her egg in an eagle's nest! I could not help laughing; and the robins seemed to join heartily in the merriment. There was a native grape-vine close by, blue with its less refined abundance, but my cunning thieves preferred the foreign flavor. Could I tax them with want of taste?

(1) "For well the soul, if stout within, Can arm impregnably the skin."*The Titmouse,* lines 75, 76.

The robins are not good solo singers, but their chorus, as, like primitive fire-worshippers, they hail the return of light and warmth to the world, is unrivalled. There are a hundred singing like one.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 婚程锦绣:男神老公好凶猛

    婚程锦绣:男神老公好凶猛

    为了男友她不惜以自己的婚姻作为交易换取五十万,谁料到爱的深厚的男友转身迎娶他人,她以为一场游戏的婚约会是她幸福的开始,没曾想到只是另外一个人的替身,峰回路转,他爱的原来一直是她……
  • 雷霆行者

    雷霆行者

    要这人,这物,这世界,再也遮挡不了我的意志。要这天、这地、这云海,都是我自由敞翔的领地。要这恶、这坏、这腐朽,在烧化一切的愤怒中战栗!
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 灼眼的夏娜之天道在人间

    灼眼的夏娜之天道在人间

    夏尔蒂娜!~夏娜?!~她们只是长的相似?不会吧~类似的出生背景~差不多的使命~这是巧合吗?命运的轮盘在旋转~邂逅来的都是那么突然~!动漫群78471032论坛地址xnhc521点com热烈欢迎!轮回的罗盘在本神的手中转动!命运的沙漏早已破旧不堪!羁绊!永不停息!
  • 霸道恶魔:你只能属于我

    霸道恶魔:你只能属于我

    “我告诉你苏钦溪,你永远只能属于我一个人。”易景尘看着怀里的小家伙霸道的说,“知道了知道了,我又不会逃。”苏钦溪吃着嘴里的棒棒糖回复着,“这么敷衍我,看来得给你点小惩罚了。”“怎么可...唔”易景尘吻上了小家伙的红唇“糖很甜,你更甜!”
  • 曳舞少年

    曳舞少年

    一群跳曳步舞的少年,用自己的舞蹈舞出人生精彩。少年,这是你的时代质疑声终将被实力所取代少年,冲吧
  • 帝仙奇缘

    帝仙奇缘

    唐朝末年,群雄并起;五朝更替,十国纷乱;兵祸连连,妖魔作祟!他,一个有着弑父杀兄宿命的灾星,自从遇到了“他”,进入了一个自己从未接触的世界!可是,也是因为遇到“他”,命运的轨迹慢慢推动着他走向自己的宿命!究竟命由天定,无法改变?还是掌握在他自己手里?一切都是未知……
  • 囚凤逆凰:腹黑神医嫡小姐

    囚凤逆凰:腹黑神医嫡小姐

    她本是惊世凰女,却在歹人的步步陷害威逼下死无葬身之地。如今穿越复活,这种事绝不会发生第二次!瞧瞧,这一家子极品。蛮横庶妹来欺凌,恶毒姨娘太嚣张,伪善白莲花朵朵开,狠毒绿茶婊处处来。本小姐乃绝世天才,岂容尔等任意欺凌!招惹了她,将会是这些人一辈子最大的错误!各种毒药各种刑具,保证让这些人“爽”的“欲罢不能”,生不如死的苟延残喘!但这个妖孽腹黑的绝色男子怎么像个跟屁虫一样黏着她?知道什么叫男女授受不亲吗??【新书新坑,各位亲萌不要走开,绝对精彩。喜欢的亲萌可以进入和栗子互动哦!】
  • 执珠

    执珠

    执珠在手,傲视仙凡!若是要走升仙之路,天下皆敌又能如何?任你大族世家背景,或是王侯将相之才,该打我照打!世间变了,天下乱了,我执起手中珠,把上天捅个洞!天塌陷了,仙陨落了,我执起手中珠,把谜底砸个穿!不要问我从哪里来,刚出世时,废材一个,受人欺辱,被人压迫。不要问我往哪里去,通神之路,只我一人,回首红尘,独尊天下。小子执珠闯天涯,谁敢阻我?天才相克以证道,凡人诛天!※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※粉嫩新人执粉嫩新书,各种求!各位看官如有不弃,果断求包养!
  • 青春的记忆:江南槐

    青春的记忆:江南槐

    少女时期的殷琦,无意邂逅远志,从此便在心间种下情愫,默默的在心底喜欢着他。后来得知自己原来并非单相思,远志也同样在暗暗的喜欢着自己。只是苦于自己当时年纪尚小,不敢表白。后因见她对学业轻慢,对前程漠视,才出言相告,希望她能为自己努力,一样考出去,一样去见识外面的大世界,创造一番辉煌的事业。殷琦为了能同心上人朝夕相伴,比翼双飞,从此发奋学习,却阴差阳错的落了榜。故事中,因着殷琦的祖父母是1942年河南大饥荒时逃难流落到江苏的,所以有着不同于南北文化的乡土风情描写。并参插了祖母、母亲、木兰姨、尧年等人的一些爱情经历。