1.The happiest bird of our spring,however,and one that rivals the European lark in my estimation,is the boblincoln,or bobolink as he is commonly called. He arrives at that choice portion of our year which,in this latitude,answers tthe deion of the month of May soften given by the poets. With us it begins about the middle of May,and lasts until nearly the middle of June. Earlier than this,winter is apt treturn on its traces,and tblight the opening beauties of the year;and later than this,begin the parching,and panting,and dissolving heats of summer. But in this genial interval,Nature is in all her freshness and fragrance: "the rains are over and gone,the flowers appear upon the earth,the time of the singing of birds is come,and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land."
2.The trees are now in their fullest foliage and brightest verdure;the woods are gay with the clustered flowers of the laurel;the air is perfumed with the sweetbrier and the wild rose;the meadows are enameled1 with clover blossoms;while the young apple,peach,and the plum begin tswell,and the cherry tglow among the green leaves.
3.This is the chosen season of revelry of the bobolink. He comes amid the pomp and fragrance of the season;his life seems all sensibility2 and enjoyment,all song and sunshine. He is tbe found in the soft bosoms of the freshest and sweetest meadows,and is most in song when the clover is in blossom. He perches on the topmost1Enameled,coated with a smooth,glossy surface. 2 Sensibility,feeling.twig of a tree,or on some long,flaunting weed,and,as he rises and sinks with the breeze,pours forth a succession of rich,tinkling notes,crowding one upon another,like the outpouring melody of the skylark,and possessing the same rapturous character.
4.Sometimes he pitches from the summit of a tree,begins his song as soon as he gets upon the wing,and flutters tremulously down tthe earth,as if overcome with ecstasy at his own music. Sometimes he is in pursuit of his mate;always in full song,as if he would win her by his melody;and always with the same appearance of intoxication and delight. Of all the birds of our groves and meadows,the bobolink was the envy of my boyhood. He crossed my path in the sweetest weather,and the sweetest season of the year,when all nature called tthe fields,and the rural feeling throbbed in every bosom;but when I,luckless urchin! was doomed tbe mewed1 up,during the live-long day,in a schoolroom.
5.It seemed as if the little varlet2 mocked at me as he flew by infull song,and sought ttaunt me with his happier lot. Oh,how I envied him! Nlessons,ntask,nschool;nothing but holiday,frolic,green fields,and fine weather. Had I been then more versed3 in poetry,I might have addressed him in the words of Logan4 tthe cuckoo:"Sweet bird,thy bower is ever green,Thy sky is ever clear;Thou hast nsorrow in thy song,Nwinter in thy year."Oh. could I fly,I'd fly with thee!1Mewed,shut up. 2 Varlet,a rascal.3Versed,familiar,practiced.4John Logan （b. 1748,d.1788）. A Scotch writer of note. His writings include dramas,poetry,history,and essays.We'd make,with joyful wing,Our annual visit o'er the globe,Companions of the spring."
6.Further observation and experience have given me a different idea of this feathered voluptuary1,which I will venture timpart for the benefit of my young readers,whmay regard him with the same unqualified envy and admiration which I once indulged. I have shown him only as I saw him at first,in what I may call the poetical part of his career,when he,in a manner,devoted himself telegant pursuits and enjoyments,and was a bird of music,and song,and taste,and sensibility,and refinement. While this lasted he was sacred from injury;the very schoolboy would not fling a stone at him,and the merest rustic would pause tlisten this strain.
7.But mark the difference. As the year advances,as the clover blossoms disappear,and the spring fades intsummer,he gradually gives up his elegant tastes and habits,doffs his poetical suit of black,assumes a russet,dusty garb,and sinks tthe gross enjoyment of common vulgar birds. His notes nlonger vibrate on the ear;he is stuffing himself with the seeds of the tall weeds on which he lately swung and chanted smelodiously. He has become a bon vivant2,a gourmand3: with him now there is nothing like the "joys of the table." In a little while he grows tired of plain,homely fare,and is off on a gastronomic4 tour in quest of foreign luxuries.
8.We next hear of him,with myriads of his kind,banqueting among the reeds of the Delaware,and grown corpulent5with good feeding. He has changed his name in traveling. Boblincoln nmore,he is the reedbird now,the much-sought-for tidbit of Pennsylvanian1Voluptuary,one whmakes his bodily enjoyment his chief object. 2Bon vivant,one whlives well.3Gourmand,a glutton.4Gastronomic,relating tthe science of good eating. 5 Corpulent,fleshy,fat.epicures1,the rival in unlucky fame of the ortolan2! Wherever he goes,pop! pop! pop! every rusty firelock in the country is blazing away. He sees his companions falling by thousands around him. Does he take warning and reform? Alas! not he. Again he wings his flight. The rice swamps of the south invite him. He gorges himself among them almost tbursting;he can scarcely fly for corpulency. He has once more changed his name,and is now the famous ricebird of the Carolinas. Last stage of his career: behold him spitted with dozens of his corpulent companions,and served up,a vaunted3 dish,on some southern table.
9.Such is the story of the bobolink;once spiritual,musical,admired,the joy of the meadows,and the favorite bird of spring ;finally,a gross little sensualist,whexpiates4 his sensuality in the larder5. His story contains a moral worthy the attention of all little birds and little boys;warning them tkeep tthose refined and intellectual pursuits which raised him tshigh a pitch of popularity during the early part of his career,but teschew6 all tendency tthat gross and dissipated indulgence which brought this mistaken little bird tan untimely end.1Epicure,one whindulges in the luxuries of the table.2The ortolan is a small bird,abundant in southern Europe,Cyprus,and Japan. It is fattened for the table,and is considered a great delicacy.3Vaunted,boasted.4Expiates,atones for. 5 Larder,a pantry.6Eschew,tshun.
