s insects.

As we return homeward, we soon find ourselves surrounded by the familiar
birds that shun the forest and assemble around the habitations of men.
Among them the Blue-Bird meets our sight, upon the roofs and fences as
well as in the field and orchard. At the risk of introducing him into a
company to which he does not strictly belong, I will attempt in this
place to describe some of his habits. The Blue-Bird (_Sylvia sialis_)
arrives very early in spring, and is detained late in the autumn by his
habit of raising two or more broods of young in the season. He is said
to bear a strong resemblance to the English Robin-Redbreast, being
similar in form and size, each having a red breast and short
tail-feathers, with only this manifest difference, that one is
olive-colored above where the other is blue. But the Blue-Bird does not
equal the Redbreast as a songster. His notes are few, not greatly
varied, though melodious and sweetly and plaintively modulated, and
never loud. On account of their want of variety, they do not enchain a
listener, but they constitute a delightful part in the woodland melodies
of morn.

The importance of the inferior singers in making up a general chorus is
not always appreciated. In an artificial musical composition, as in an
oratorio or an anthem, though there is a leading part, which is commonly
the air, that gives character to the whole, yet this principal part
would often be a very indifferent piece of melody, if performed without
its accompaniments. These accompaniments by themselves would seem still
more unimportant and trifling. Yet if the composition be the work of a
master, however trifling and comparatively insignificant these brief
strains or snatches, they are intimately connected with the harmony of
the piece, and could not be omitted without a serious derangement of the
grand effect. The inferior singing-birds, on the same principle, are
indispensable as aids in giving additional effect to the notes of the
chief singers.

Though the Robin is the principal musician in the general orison of
dawn, his notes would become tiresome, if heard without accompaniments.
Nature has so arranged the harmony of this chorus, that one part shall
assist another; and so exquisitely has she combined all the different
voices, that the silence of any one can never fail to be immediately
perceived. The low, mellow warble of the Blue-Bird seems a sort of echo
to the louder voice of the Robin; and t