The robin's impatient yelp not yet attuned to happy song, the song
sparrow's trill, the bluebird's serene melody, do not herald the coming
of spring, but attend its vanguard. These blithe musicians accompany the
soft air that bares the fields, empurples the buds, and fans the bloom
of the first squirrelcups and sets the hyla's shrill chime a-ringing.
Preceding these, while the fields are yet an unbroken whiteness and the
coping of the drifts maintain the fantastic grace of their storm-built
shapes, before a recognized waft of spring is felt or the voice of a
freed stream is heard, comes that sable pursuivant, the crow, fighting
his way against the fierce north wind, tossed alow and aloft, buffeted
to this side and that, yet staggering bravely onward, and sounding his
trumpet in the face of his raging antagonist, and far in advance of its
banners, proclaiming spring.
It is the first audible promise of the longed-for season, and it
heartens us, though there be weary days of waiting for its fulfillment,
while the bold herald is beset by storm and pinched with hunger as he
holds his outpost and gleans his scant rations in the winter-desolated
land.
He finds some friendliness in nature even now. Though her forces assail
him with relentless fury, she gives him here the shelter of her
evergreen tents, in windless depths of woodland; bares for him there a
rood of sward or stubble whereon to find some crumb of comfort; leaves
for him ungathered apples on the naked boughs, and on the unpruned
tangles of vines wild grapes,--poor raisins of the frost,--the remnants
of autumnal feasts of the robins and partridges.
Thankful now for such meagre fare and eager for the fullness of
disgusting repasts, in the bounty of other seasons, he becomes an
epicure whom only the choicest food will satisfy. He has the pick of
the fattest grubs; he makes stealthy levies on the earliest robins'
nests; and from some lofty lookout or aerial scout watches the farmer
plant the corn and awaits its sprouting into the dainty tidbits, a
fondness for whose sweetness is his overmastering weakness. For this he
braves the terrible scarecrow and the dread mystery of the cornfield's
lined boundary, for this risks life and forfeits the good name that his
better deeds might give him. If he would not be tempted from grubs and
carrion, what a worthy bird he might be accounted. In what good if
humble repute might he live, how lamented, die. O Appetite! thou base
belly-denned demon, for what sins of birds and men art thou accountable!
In the springtide days, the crow turns aside from theft and robbery to
the softer game of love, whereunto you hear the harsh voice attuned in
cluttering notes. After the wooing the pair begin house building and
keeping.
It is the rudest and clumsiest of all bird architecture that has become
the centre of their cares--such a jumble of sticks and twigs as chance
might pile on its forked foundations; but woe betide the hawk who
ventures near, or owl who dares to sound his hollow trumpet in the
sacred precincts. At the first alarm signal, as suddenly and
mysteriously as Robin Hood's merry men appeared at the winding of his
horn, the black clansmen rally from every quarter of the greenwood, to
assail the intruder and force him to ignominious retreat.
When at last the young crows, having clad their uncouth nakedness with
full sable raiment, are abroad in the world, they, with unwary
foolhardiness and incessant querulous cries of hunger or alarm, are
still a constant source of anxiety to parents and kindred. But in the
late summer, when the youngsters have come to months of discretion and
the elders are freed from the bondage of their care, a long holiday
begins for all the tribe. The corn has long since ceased to tempt them,
and the persecution of man has abated. The shorn meadows and the
close-cropped pastures swarm with grasshoppers, and field and forest
offer their abundant fruits.
Careless and uncared for, what happy lives they lead, sauntering on
sagging wing through the sunshine from chosen field to chosen wood, and
at nightfall encamping in the fragrant tents of the pines.
At last the gay banners of autumn signal departure, and the gathered
clans file away in straggling columns, flecking the blue sky with
pulsating dots of blackness, the green earth with wavering shadows.
Sadly we watch the retreat of the sable cohorts, whose desertion leaves
our northern homes to the desolation of winter.
V