The Birds' Calendar 



melancholy song. The hermit thrush is silent- 

 ly lurking about the shrubbery — first of all the 

 thrushes to arrive in spring, and now the last 

 to disappear. Now and then a robin or two 

 can be seen flying about, but most of them 

 have gone south, while the few that remain are 

 fast drifting into winter seclusion. The month 

 has also brought a flock of herring-gulls from 

 the north. 



My note-book records the singing of the 

 white-throats and song sparrows in the milder 

 days of the month. The annual " harvest- 

 festival " (this year on the 30th) was the oc- 

 casion of an unusually loud anthem of ' ' thanks- 

 giving " from the song sparrow, as I was walk- 

 ing through the Park — one of those atoms of 

 coincidence that linger long in the memory, 

 like a word fitly spoken. This was the last full 

 burst of song I heard this year ; and thus the 

 sparrow closed the season, as he ushered in the 

 spring ; reminding one of the dandelion — the 

 flower that gilds both edges of the year. 



The dandelion and song sparrow seem to 

 strike hands across the chasm that separates the 

 vegetable and animal kingdoms. Lowly and 

 unpretentious, like its musical analogue, the 

 dandelion is the earliest of all the flowers in 



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