THE CALL OF THE WOODS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2201, 14 July 1914, Page 2

THE CALL OF THE WOODS

QUAIL'S WILD. NOTE'IN THE CITY. , . [By Imogen.] • : - Not only, tho siglifc of the flowers that fill the windows of tho florisj! iu the city—purple clouds of violets, white foam of narcissi; and tho golden glory of jonquils—tell one. that spring is already feeling her way upon tho eager earth, but the sound of the buds' voices in tho early'morning hours speak o.f the more vivid lifo that is beginning, to pulse in their tiny bodies. Tho > first sleepy, so very sleepy, protesting "cheep,'! almost ending with a yawn, coroos: before five o'clock now, and sometimes it is answered by another equally ill-used ''cheep" from an equally sleepy bird not yet back from dreams of nice fut'worms and flies, and things: Sometimes it murmurs away to itsolf for quite a long-time, with no j answering voice to agreo or disagree, and then all at once tho flowering glory of the-wattle tree,: and the sombre-: haunted shadows of the pino tree outside' arc alivo with the bird worldy'all together 'discussing tboir plans for breakfast, relating the horrid frights they "• suffered in the night; when they luMrd _tlie complaints of ■ twenty million midnight marauders slinking about below, and of what heathenish hours those' foolish humans kept, shut away from tho net of starlight- 'and ' tho breezes of heaven, and sleeping when all their world was wido awake. I It w;a's a very foolish, very mad, very inexplicable world, they thought, and then, just-when they were in the midst of a very'animated discussion as to what made;' the .'softest''.lining for • their nests,..•: throe miiiahsi and two storm ■ thrushes joi;r. ; them, l , and; all peace is'at ah end. .-'..-.' ' .-;. - - :~ : . -.: , ;.'-. ■ ;Ribald,scally-«''ags, : theso minahs s are, outraging all the nice, comfortable .tra-; ditiohs '.that' 1 ' have been specially laid down for. decent birds by Heaven,'.: and ; bv. all the canons of convention. It/is horrible, outrageous,.and all tho shaky : ;inora]s. of'the young sparrows, the- star-. ilings; .and. the.tiny ''green ' blight-eyes : will suffer irretrievable harm,'scold-the , .plump, righteous the community. ;'.'■••.'••. ■'■■■.-, : : ■'.'..' ■•'..'",;•': . ''What fight had these—those, low,. ■thieving, profane ; birds to come/among* tbemP" '_they/<puff rl and stutter,.to:■!one' another indignantly.'" Just when they' were going fo.give the young birds their daily instruction in bird morale, • specially.laid down for'thorh by. their, spiritual; guides; the this I -. -..,;, 'A summoning note sounds froth:'tlid" elder birds, answered, by a protesting twitter - froih the young ones.-. - Tliore is a rustle,' a shaking- and. quivering of; loaves arid boughs, a whirr of:,wings, and the trees are left to the minahs, who laugh at. tho success' of. itb.cir .'intrusion,'^ whose 'notes of. liquid, golden.'music, would surely luro 'Eurydico from tho Undonvorldt were; she still thqro, 'as they, float'through the ..silence of the clear morning-air.','-.:'.; ■ :-:'v:.:- ; -> v.•-', . .'Thoy, tooV'flitvaway. .'_ .'. ■■'''/,'■ ;■;• :^ ') ''■'■>'!•'■' '■' A milk-cart passes, two of rid abominations, with: a nerve-racking clatter.-, onco'; luorolvW^wb 'sparrow's discuss matters of state,oii'tlio window-lodge, and importinpntly peep into the room, =■ They even niako a tentative divo to cpnio'-iu, but 'thihk'hbot-. ter of, it. ~,' ' '.- !'':•:■ , Then from somewhere in the distance comes-the-'unmi'stakeable oall of.quail' to: its mate, clear and, penetrating. Quail in the heart of a cityl "It is 'iinbeliev'l'hble, and again .','■ one. listens. Once .more it • comes, this ghost.- from . tho hills of dreaming,silences and-solitude;' this alien to tho dust and: rattle of street's , to tho : smother .of heaped-up. .bouses' and shops, ' to the and rush of human life, that,has/long' ago .-swept j away its home from itho hills and marshes that once existed, ond v covered them'.with its'own outgrowth,, of ugli-, noss and utility.. '.•"'•• ':.'--' .->;'/. :.,..•. Again. it comes, bringing with it! wide, sun-swopfc spaces heaped \nfch broken, shadow-chased "mountain heights,, deep;; quiet, .reedy valleys, and ■ the murmuring, multitudinous' life of untouched hlish;. -.'.' -'" ;' ' .'- -.';,'.'.'-.'.' .' Dreams all, and ""'yet its insistentghostly voice still calls on lincoucerned' bv. its strhnge environment:'■ 'Is sleep still' blinding - the;, senses ?_ . Has,' ,'pno been, transported: in ,the night to country solitudes ?, or, is one still in Wellington ?. are the queriesi -that flit, through 'tho Wind. '■■'. .'■•■ ''■.'-,■'■:■.■''■:■'■.''■■'.'. -.■:•"';'' ' A_ crash,;and rattle, and \ din, as thpujcli twenty thousand milk-cans were engaged in a battle; of 'Armageddon,. ' tears down the 'street. .A steamer, going;out of the; harbour hoots wildly and vociferously, as. it -leaves : the' , whaVf.; The Question is answered, and the, quail is but a will-o'-the-wispT-fa '"shi>'clAw.-of • •the.lulls." One is alas 1 in_: Wellington. .: -' :; -. r /\"-i-: : ':'^:["y.: ;;;p/',