ORNITHOLOGY 



315 



THE DLUEBIRI) CARRIES THE SKY ABOVE 

 AND THE EARTH BENEATH. 



and plant life furnish adequate food and 

 shelter : and while these will be eagerly 

 sought and welcomed back to their favor- 

 ite haunts, it is somehow the first call 

 that g-ives us the thrill. It is that call 

 for which we have waited many weeks, 

 and perhaps in search of which we have 

 wandered for days over the hills or along 

 the streams, and thrice welcome seems 

 the swift-winged messenger who brings it. 

 In any great movement we must admire 

 the pioneers. It is those who forge 

 ahead, establishing themselves under un- 

 certain conditions and maintaining their 

 living against adverse circumstances, who 

 pave the way and smooth the road for 

 those who follow. So it is with the re- 

 turning birds : we love the vanguard of 

 the advancing host. The phoebe that 

 calls from his perch over the ice-margined 

 river ; the song sparrow that sings 

 through the blustering March wind, and 

 the flicker drumming merrily in the cold, 

 gray dawn of an earlv sirring morning: — 

 these awake our enthusiasm and excite 

 our admiration. 



There are some fifty species of birds 

 which an interested observer should be 

 able to record from ^Massachusetts during 

 the month of March. Nearly half of 

 these are classed as winter visitants or 

 ])ermanent residents, the remainder con- 

 stituting the early spring migrants. The 

 wild geese are honking their way across 

 the sky in great wedge-shaped flocks ; the 

 red-tailed hawk is w'heeling and soaring- 

 above the woods and meadows, — the very 

 spirit of exultation ; robins are again ap- 

 pearing about our homes; flickers are 

 drumming their loud tattoo on the dead 

 stubs, and before the month is out the 

 meadows will be ringing with the lusty 

 calls of the red-winged l:)lackbirds. The 

 bronze grackles returning to the neighbor- 



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