March 



little worth, and yet there is something very 

 musical in the simple ^^ conk-a-rce'' oft re- 

 peated, as the bird perches prominently on a 

 bush in the swamp, or beside a stream in the 

 pasture. x 



At the close of the month various parts of the 

 Park were fairly alive with fox sparrows, song 

 sparrows, robins, snow-birds, and white-throats, 

 all in song except the last. The fiery cardinal, 

 with an air of exclusiveness, gleams here and 

 there through the branches ; and the frequent 

 note of the golden- winged woodpecker, nut- 

 hatch, chickadee, and goldfinch is heard. 



Now too came the phoebe, the earliest repre- 

 sentative of another family — the flycatchers — 

 a group quite distinctive in plumage and habits. 

 Perhaps no other family gives the field ornithol- 

 ogist quite so much trouble as this, in the re- 

 semblance of many of its species, as the colors 

 are mostly neutral (of an olive tint, and white 

 that is more or less pure), and most of the species 

 differ but little in size. They are aptly called 

 flycatchers, not only as being chiefly (but not 

 exclusively) insectivorous, but from their con- 

 spicuous habit of catching their prey on the 

 wing, all having the characteristic of perching 



93 



