Birds: How the Birds Secured Their Rights

"If you will, we know how to pay you a hundred times over. We will teach your children to keep themselves clean and neat. We will show them how to live together in peace and love and to agree as we do in our nests. We will build pretty houses which you will like to see. We will play about your garden and flowerbeds — ourselves like flowers on wings without any cost to you. We will destroy the wicked insects and worms that spoil your cherries and currants and plums and apples and roses. We will give you our best songs, and make the spring more beautiful and the summer sweeter to you. Every June morning when you go out into the field, Oriole and Bluebird and Blackbird and Bobolink will fly after you, and make the day more delightful to you. And when you go home tired after sundown Vesper Sparrow will tell you how grateful we are. When you sit down on your porch after dark, Fifebird and Hermit Thrush and Wood Thrush will sing to you; and even Whip-poor-will will cheer you up a little. We know where we are safe. In a little while all the birds will come to live in Massachusetts again, and everybody who loves music will like to make a summer home with you." The singers are:

Brown Thrasher,
Robert o'Lincoln,
Vesper Sparrow,
Hermit Thrush,
Robin Redbreast,
Song Sparrow,
Scarlet Tanager,
Summer Redbird,
Blue Heron,
Humming Bird,
Yellow Bird,
Whip-poor-will,
Water Wagtail,
Woodpecker,
Pigeon Woodpecker,
Indigo Bird,
Yellow Throat,
Wilson's Thrush,
Chickadee.

King Bird,
Swallow,
Cedar Bird,
Cow Bird,
Martin,
Veery,
Vireo,
Oriole,
Blackbird,
Fife Bird,
Wren,
Linnet,
Pewee,
Phoebe,
Yoke Bird,
Lark,
Sandpiper,
Chewink.

THE CAPTIVE'S ESCAPE.

I saw such a sorrowful sight, my dears,
   Such a sad and sorrowful sight,
As I lingered under the swaying vines,
   In the silvery morning light.
The skies were so blue and the day was so fair
   With beautiful things untold,
You would think no sad and sorrowful thing
   Could enter its heart of gold.

A fairy-like cage was hanging there,
   So gay with turret and dome,
You'd be sure a birdie would gladly make
   Such a beautiful place its home.
But a wee little yellow-bird sadly chirped
   As it fluttered to and fro;
I know it was longing with all its heart
   To its wild-wood home to go.

I heard a whir of swift-rushing wings,
   And an answering gladsome note;
As close to its nestlings prison bars,
   I saw the poor mother bird float.
I saw her flutter and strive in vain
   To open the prison door.
Then sadly cling with drooping wing
   As if all her hopes were o'er.

But ere I could reach the prison house
   And let its sweet captive free,
She was gone like a yellow flash of light,
   To her home in a distant tree.
"Poor birdie," I thought, "you shall surely go,
   When mamma comes back again;"
For it hurt me so that so small a thing
   Should suffer so much of pain.

And back in a moment she came again
   And close to her darling's side
With a bitter-sweet drop of honey dew,
   Which she dropped in its mouth so wide.
Then away, with a strange wild mournful note
   Of sorrow, which seemed to say
"Goodbye, my darling, my birdie dear,
   Goodbye for many a day."

A quick wild flutter of tiny wings,
   A faint low chirp of pain,
A throb of the little aching heart
   And birdie was free again.
Oh sorrowful anguished mother-heart,
   'Twas all that she could do,
She had set it free from a captive's life
   In the only way she knew.