80 HOW TO STUDY BIRDS 



dence. The golden-crown, which has been occasional 

 in the winter, has become more numerous where there 

 are evergreens, and now the ruby-crown has joined 

 it. The former has yellow on the crown,— the male 

 orange and yellow, — while in the other the crown- 

 patch is fiery red and the female lacks that ornament 

 entirely. We begin to see the purple finch in num- 

 bers, though sometimes it arrives earlier. The 

 American pipit, in small numbers, which can be rec- 

 ognized by its habit of wagging the tail, runs about 

 open, rather barren fields or hill-tops, picking up 

 food. The first of the warbler host, the myrtle and 

 yellow palm warblers, arrive. 



By the middle of the month we are glad to greet 

 the hermit thrush, though he does not yet condescend 

 to sing for us, and the first straggling swallows, — 

 tree, bank, and barn, — which do not necessarily 

 make a summer, for sometimes it snows after their 

 arrival. Then, when they disappear, we fear that 

 they have perished, for there is room for grave doubt 

 as to whether individual birds caught too far north 

 can run back for a time, as is the popular impression 

 that they do. We may fear that a swallow without 

 food In a snowstorm would not get very far, poor 

 thing! Though they perish, others in due time ar- 

 rive, and people gladly imagine that they are the same 

 ones. The birds have no warm Pullmans and din- 

 ing cars in which to journey. 



During the last days of April the great wave of mi- 

 gration. In middle latitudes, begins to be felt. In 



