72 CITIZEN BIBD 



husband, whose greatest distinction is in being the 

 family musician." 



" When do the Summer Citizens begin to come back 

 to their nesting places?" asked Nat. "And when do 

 they go away again ? " 



" The great bird procession begins the first of March 

 with Bluebirds, Robins, Redwings, and Meadowlarks, 

 but it is the first of June before the latest comers, the 

 little Marsh Wrens, are settled. Then in autumn, from 

 September until the first snows of December fall, the 

 procession flutters back south again, one by one or in 

 great flocks, dropping away like falling leaves in the 

 forest, and the birds that we see later are likely to be 

 Citizens. 



" The early Robin may have a second brood and the 

 Hummingbird eggs in her nest, before the Marsh Wrens 

 have even been seen. 



'' In the Southern States the birds arrive and build 

 sooner than in the Northern. A cold spring may delay 

 the on-coming migration, or a warm autumn retard the 

 return movement. But as you study birds you will 

 soon see that each one has his own place in the proces- 

 sion, and usually keeps it. Year by year this vast pro- 

 cession goes on in the air, back and forth, night and 

 day, like the ceaseless ebb and flow of the tides at sea. 

 Bird-waves flow on forever, in their appointed times, 

 and none of Nature's aspects are more regular or more 

 unfailing. It almost seems, boys, as if birds made the 

 seasons — as if winter in the Middle and Northern States 

 might be called the ' songless season.' " 



