LATER SPRING BIRDS 



SPRING comes with a rush in some parts of our 

 country and remains but a short time, so closely does 

 Summer follow in her footsteps. But in New England, 

 New York, northern Pennsylvania, Ohio, and neighbor- 

 ing states, her approach is more gradual and restrained. 



When maple and red-bud have laid aside their corals 

 and fruit-trees have donned their robes of white and shell- 

 pink; when the woods show again a flush of tender green, 

 Spring arrives. She has long been heralded by early 

 choristers; she is now accompanied by a host more won- 

 derful than retinue of kings, so varied is their dress and 

 so sweet their triumphal music. Grove and orchard are 

 alive with happy-hearted birds, who help to make May 

 the loveliest month of the year. 



First come the swallows, skimming over pools and cir- 

 cling above meadows — embodiment of grace, gladdening 

 the world with their joyous twitterings. Swifts, night- 

 hawks, and whip-poor-wills make nightfall vocal. Little 

 house wrens, each a fountain of bubbling music, take up 

 their abode near our homes. 



Cuckoos slip quietly from tree to tree; thrashers and 

 catbirds seek thickets or perch on treetops, to sing like 

 their celebrated cousins, the mockingbirds. Shy oven- 

 birds and lustrous-eyed thrushes return to live in the 

 woods, or pass through them as they journey to their north- 

 em homes. The advent of the tanager in his flashing 

 scarlet, and the grosbeak with his glowing rose bring to 



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