, STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 165 



struttiiif^ at the head of his three Ijroods before starting for his 

 Southern Tanaan. 



The severe winter did not seem to have diuiiiiisluMl the ]iuniher 

 of l)irds. and in fact they were more ])lentiful than for many pre- 

 vious seasons. About the second of April came a noisy cohjny of 

 blackbirds and comiueneed their annual tight for the ])ossessi()n of a 

 tall larch tree on the premises. They have been ignominiously 

 driven off each successive year for five years; yet each season they 

 renew their chiim as persistently as if each defeat had been a victory. 

 April 2()th came the swallows and swifts, flying- high through the 

 air for insects, and twittering noisily. On the 2Uth the brown 

 thrushes put in an appearance and hlled the evening air with their 

 clear loud notes. Surely this l)ird is not fairly aj)])reciated as a 

 songster. Wrens also are on hand as full of noise and fight as ever. 

 Say what we ])lease of the sweetness and amiability of birds, there 

 is more clear grit and general cussedness to the square inch in a male 

 wren than in anything that wears feathers or hair. 



May 7th brought the cat birds and orioles, also a pair of red- 

 starts, the male in black, red. orange and white, the female in modest 

 quaker garb: the first pair I have noticed in the city. It is likely, 

 however, that the lack of foliage enal)l('d us to observe them, while 

 in other years the trees being in full leaf screened their presence 

 from view. Indigo birds came on the 15th; also on the same day I 

 got sight of a pair of rose-breasted grossbeaks, whi( h had been here 

 some days, the nude having l)een often heard — he is a tine singer. 

 Saw also to-day a })air of redstarts of which the nuile was most sin- 

 gularly marked. It could not have been the marking of an immature 

 bird, for the colors had all their brightness. It is probably a sport or 

 freak of nature. Instead of white wingl)ars he had great blotches 

 of white on the wing; the outer tail feathers were also white and a 

 large white s})ot on the side of the head. In size, colors (except the 

 distril)ution of white spoken of), actions, habits of feeding and notes, 

 it was a genuine redstart, and a very beautiful as well as a singular 

 bird. I could not ascertain that the redstarts built in town, and pre- 

 sume they did not, though they were here until the foliage became 

 thick, and with their secretive habits may afterwards have easily 

 eludecl oliscrvation. The vireos l)nilt in the city, as I heard their song 

 almost daily during the summer. The iiuligo bird also builds )u*ai' 

 us every season. Tsually those l)irds which come latest and leave 

 earliest are more heard than seen, though to this rule the wren is a 

 notable excei)tion. 



