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page 92
dart upon them from the near and surrounding crags, before
they could descend to their ground-nests for protection. It
is not often that the nightingale resorts to these vales;
but almost all the other tribes of our English warblers are
numerous; and their notes, when listened to by the side of
broad still waters, or when heard in unison with the
murmuring of mountain-brooks, have the compass of their
power enlarged accordingly. There is also an imaginative
influence in the voice of the cuckoo, when that voice has
taken possession of a deep mountain valley, very different
from any thing which can be excited by the same sound in a
flat country. Nor must a circumstance be omitted, which here
renders the close of spring especially interesting; I mean
the practice of bringing down the ewes from the mountains to
yean in the vallies and enclosed grounds. The herbage being
thus cropped as it springs, that first tender emerald
green of the season, which would otherwise have lasted
little more than a fortnight, is prolonged in the pastures
and meadows for many weeks: while they are farther enlivened
by the multitude of lambs bleating and skipping about. These
sportive creatures, as they gather strength, are turned upon
the mountains, and with their slender limbs, their
snow-white colour, and their wild and light motions,
beautifully accord or contrast with the rocks and lawns,
upon which they must now begin to seek their food. And last,
but not least, at this time the traveller
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