yet seems the least sincere
and genuine of the sylvan minstrels, as if she had taken up music only
to be in the fashion, or not to be outdone by the Robins and Thrushes.
In other words, she seems to sing from some outward motive, and not from
inward joyousness. She is a good versifier, but not a great poet.
Vigorous, rapid, copious, not without fine touches, but destitute of any
high, serene melody, her performance, like that of Thoreau's squirrel,
always implies a spectator.

There is a certain air and polish about her strain, however, like that
in the vivacious conversation of a well-bred lady of the world, that
commands respect. Her maternal instinct, also, is very strong, and that
simple structure of dead twigs and dry grass is the centre of much
anxious solicitude. Not long since, while strolling through the woods,
my attention was attracted to a small, densely grown swamp, hedged in
with Eglantine, Brambles, and the everlasting Smilax, from which
proceeded loud cries of distress and alarm, indicating that some
terrible calamity was threatening my sombre-colored minstrel. On
effecting an entrance, which, however, was not accomplished till I had
doffed coat and hat, so as to diminish the surface exposed to the thorns
and brambles, and looking around me from a square yard of terra firma, I
found myself the spectator of a loathsome, yet fascinating scene. Three
or four yards from me was the nest, beneath which, in long festoons,
rested a huge black snake; a bird, two thirds grown, was slowly
disappearing between his expanded jaws. As they seemed unconscious of my
presence, I quietly observed the proceedings. By slow degrees he
compassed the bird about with his elastic mouth; his head flattened, his
neck writhed and swelled, and two or three undulatory movements of his
glistening body finished the work. Then, with marvellous ease, he
cautiously raised himself up, his tongue flaming from his mouth the
while, curved over the nest, and, with wavy, subtle motions, explored
the interior. I can conceive of nothing more overpoweringly terrible to
an unsuspecting family of birds than the sudden appearance above their
domicile of the head and neck of this arch-enemy. It is enough to
petrify the blood in their veins. Not finding the object of his search,
he came streaming down from the nest to a lower limb, and commenced
extending his researches in other directions, sliding stealthily through
the branches, bent on capturing one