136 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



for birds, and many that generally mi- 

 grate were with us through the entire 

 season. 



Meadow larks and white-throated 

 sparrows, of which we generally have 

 only a few during the cold months, 

 were very common all through the 

 winter. On New Year's day I flushed 

 twenty- four meadow larks in one field 

 and on Washington's Birthday they 



were in full song. 



Field sparrows which have never 

 before been known to winter here 

 were fairly common all the season, 

 and even a few fox sparrows remained 

 with us. A chewink was seen here on 

 December 19th and a phoebe on De- 

 cember 14th. 



In such a winter it is hard to ac- 

 count for the presence of redpolls but 

 they were unusually common as were 

 also American crossbills. 



The first spring migrants were seen 

 on February 13th ,011 which date I 

 saw two purple grades. On February 

 22nd red-winged blackbirds were seen 

 and were singing. 



These first arrivals were unusually 

 early. Then followed a period of cold 

 weather, with snow, sleet and high 

 winds, lasting until the middle of 

 March and retarding the migrations 

 so that the next lot of arrivals was no 

 earlier than usual. 



The coming of the first swallow is 

 always hailed with joy but the one 

 white-bellied swallow, which I saw on 

 March 31st, only served to make good 

 the old adage that one swallow does 

 not make a summer, for the first part 

 of April was truly March-like. 



The migration of the warblers is 

 watched by bird lovers with the keen- 

 est interest, and the sight of a Yellow 

 Palm on April 7th was a real delight. 

 The next arrival of the warbler fam- 

 ily was a Louisiana water-thrush on 

 the ()th but not until the 18th did the 

 myrtles appear. One yellow warbler 

 was observed on April 1st very early, 

 but no more were seen until May 4th. 

 There was a very large Might of warb- 

 lers on May 15th, the beautiful black- 

 burnian being really abundant on that 

 date. A few of the rarer bay-breasted 

 were seen. On that date I noted six- 

 teen species of warblers and on the 



1 6th twenty. On the date of writing, 

 May 27th, the migrations are practi- 

 cally over; a few black-poll warblers 

 being yet with us and perhaps some 

 olive and gray-cheeked thrushes are 

 still to be seen. 



The beneficial effect of the anti- 

 spring-shooting law has been clearly 

 shown by the unusual number of ducks 

 and geese on our meadows this year. 

 Not for a long time have they been 

 so numerous or so easily observed. 



It was my privilege to witness re- 

 cently in company with two other 

 bird lovers a most unusual sight. We 

 had gone to the neighborhood of the 

 bushes that fringed the bank of a 

 stream, to observe some small birds, 

 when our attention was attracted by 

 what appeared to be, at a distance of 

 about a hundred feet, several very 

 strongly marked black-and-white birds. 



Closer observation showed them to 

 be the heads of seven Canada geese 

 which were quietly sitting by the 

 edge of the water. They seemed to be 

 no more alarmed at our presence than 

 if they had belonged to the barnyard 

 and been accustomed to the society 

 of human beings. They allowed us to 

 approach to within fifty feet of them 

 and to level our field glasses and look 

 as long as we liked. On our closer 

 approach they quietly took to the 

 water and started to swim down 

 stream which was not more than 

 twenty feet wide, and it w r as only when 

 one of the party ran to the edge of the 

 water and headed them off that they 

 finally took wing, forming as they flew 

 the well known wedge. Until then we 

 were not sure that they were not do- 

 mesticated specimens that had escaped 

 from some preserve. 



The Horrors of the Plume Trade. 



BY WILLIAM BUTCHER, NEW YORK CITY. 



Ignoring the economic value of wild 

 birds, which alone should be a suf- 

 ficient reason for their preservation, 

 there is another reason why none 

 should be killed for millinery orna- 

 ments. The horrors attending the col- 

 lection of plumes of Herons is beyond 

 the powers of language to describe, 

 and can best be shown pictorially. 

 Much has been written on the subject 



