February, 1900. 



Junior-Naturalist Monthly. 



Issued by the College of Agriculture and Experiment Station of Cornell University, 

 under Chapter 430 of the Laws of 1899, of the State of New York. 



Entered at the Post Office at Ithaca, N. Y., as second class matter. 



Vol. I. CORNELL UNIVEKSITY, ITHACA, K. Y. No. 5 



WAITING FOR THE BIRDS. 



The springtime belongs to the birds and me. We own it. We 

 know when the Mayflowers and the bnttercnps bloom. We know 

 when the first frogs peep. We watch the awakening of the woods. 

 We are wet by the warm April showers. We go where we will, 

 and we are companions. Every tree and brook and blade of grass 

 is ours ; and our hearts are full of song. 



There are boys who kill the birds, and girls who want to catch 

 them and put them in cages ; and there are others who steal their 

 eggs. The birds are not partners with them : they are only serv- 

 ants. Birds sing for their friends, not for their masters. I am 

 sure that one cannot think much of the springtime and the flowers 

 if his heart is always set upon killing or catching something. We 

 are happy when we are free ; and so are the birds. 



The birds and I get acquainted all over again every spring. They 

 have seen strange lands in the winter, and all the brooks and woods 

 have been covered with snow. So we run and romp together, and 

 find all the nooks and crannies which we had half forgotten since 

 October. The birds remember the old places. The wrens pull the 

 sticks from the old rail, and seem to be wild with joy to see the 

 place again. They must be the same wrens that were here last year 

 and the year before, for strangers would not make such a noise over 

 an old rail. Tlie bluebirds and wrens look into every crack and 

 corner for a place in which to build, and the robbins and chipping- 

 sparrows explore every tree in the old orchard. 



If the birds want to live with us, we should encourage them. 



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