I once heard a crow imitate the warbling of a small bird, in a tone so entirely at variance with his ordinary voice, that, though assured by one who had heard him before, that it was a crow and nothing else, it was only on the clearest proof that I could satisfy myself of the fact.

They chant their artless notes in simple guise; They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim: Perhaps 'Dundee's' wild-warbling measures rise, Or plaintive 'Martyrs,' worthy of the name; Or noble 'Elgin' beets the heavenward flame, The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays.

Either the present deity we hear, Or he of the third heaven hath left his sphere, And through the bosom's pure and warbling wells, Breathes tenderly his smoothed oracles; Breathes tenderly, and so with easy rounds Teaches our mortal hearts to bear immortal sounds.

How differ you from that Appollo now That whilom sat in shade of Lawrell bowe, And with the warbling of your Iuorie Lute T'alure the Fairies for to daunce about!

In March, before the violet has ventured to peep out from the southern knoll of the pasture or the sunny brow of the hill, while the northern skies are liable to pour down at any hour a storm of sleet and snow, the Song-Sparrow, beguiled by southern winds, has already made his appearance, and, on still mornings, may be heard warbling his few merry notes, as if to make the earliest announcement of his arrival.

The farmer laughed, and thus replied: 'Thou dull important lump of pride, 30 Dar'st thou with that harsh grating tongue, Depreciate birds of warbling song? Indulge thy spleen.

From wood to wood redoubling thunders roll, And bellow through the vales; the moving storm 520 Thickens amain, and loud triumphant shouts, And horns shrill-warbling in each glade, prelude To his approaching fate.

Pierced through and through, On pointed spears they lift him high in air; Wriggling he hangs, and grins, and bites in vain: 460 Bid the loud horns, in gaily warbling strains, Proclaim the felon's fate; he dies, he dies.

The flowery landscape, and the gilded dome, And vistas opening to the wearied eye, 480 Through all his wide domain; the planted grove, The shrubby wilderness with its gay choir Of warbling birds, can't lull to soft repose The ambitious wretch, whose discontented soul Is harrowed day and night; he mourns, he pines, Until his prince's favour makes him great.

NATURE ~The American Partridge.~ Neglected minstrel of the single song, Piping at twilight through the russet fields, Thy two soft silver notes, one short, one long, Rich with the careless joy that nature yields, Rise from the stubble round the well-stocked fields, Far from the chattering flock or warbling throng: Bob White!

At length out of the river it was reard, 610 And borne above the cloudes to be divin'd, Whilst all the way most heavenly noyse was heard Of the strings, stirred with the warbling wind, That wrought both ioy and sorrow in my mind: So now in heaven a signe it doth appeare, 615 The Harpe well knowne beside the Northern Beare. III.

And I, whose ioy was earst with spirit full To teach the warbling pipe to sound aloft, 290

Again the Goddess strikes the golden lyre, And tunes to wilder notes the warbling wire; With soft suspended step Attention moves, And Silence hovers o'er the listening groves; 5 Orb within orb the charmed audience throng, And the green vault reverberates the song.

3 Soft-warbling beaks ¦ in each bright blos ¦ som move, 4 And vo ¦ cal rosebuds thrill ¦ the enchanted grove, ¦

Here he beheld troops of dazzling essences, warbling as they flew, and shaping their flights hither and thither, like birds when they rise from the banks of rivers, and rejoice with one another in new-found pasture.

He then beheld the Virgin herself bodily present,her who is fairest now in heaven, as she was on earth; and while his eyes were being painted with her beauty, there fell on a sudden a seraphic light from heaven, which, spinning into a circle as it came, formed a diadem round her head, still spinning, and warbling as it spun.

Neither, with his old habit of warbling, can he help singing on Sundays in the choir; and he is called Huguet.

Homer and Hesiod intimate to us how this Art should be applied, when they represent the Muses as surrounding Jupiter, and warbling their Hymns about his Throne.

In short, our Souls are at present delightfully lost and bewildered in a pleasing Delusion, and we walk about like the enchanted Hero of a Romance, who sees beautiful Castles, Woods and Meadows; and at the same time hears the warbling of Birds, and the purling of Streams; but upon the finishing of some secret Spell, the fantastick Scene breaks up, and the disconsolate Knight finds himself on a barren Heath, or in a solitary Desart.

Let such raise palaces, and manors buy, Collect a tax, or farm a lottery; With warbling eunuchs fill our silenced stage, And lull to servitude a thoughtless age.

Then came the song of the warbling bird, the hum of the mountain bee, and the rustling of the leaves as they were stirred by the gentle summer breeze,all making sweet melody in Nature's many voiced harmonies.

" The songster heard his short oration, And, warbling out his approbation, Released him, as my story tells, And found a supper somewhere else.

The general warbling continues, with now and then an interruption by the transient croak of the raven, the scream of the jay, or the pert chattering of the daw.

But straight, as in a clap, when she of Christmas says the word, Here is the snow, and there the sun, but never bloom nor bird; Nor warbling flame, nor gloaming-rope of amethyst there shows, Nor bunches of green emeralds, nor belfry, well, and rose, Nor cloud of gold, nor cherry-tree, nor witch in brindled shawl,

During that day, while hunting in the high grass, he started a bird whose warbling attracted him.