BIRDS OF 

 FIELD, FOREST AND PARK 



Chapter I 

 A BIRD'S YEAR 



**I hear the wild geese honking 

 From out the misty night, — 

 A sound of moving armies 

 On-sweeping in their might; 

 The river ice is drifting 

 Beneath their northward flight." 



— Burroughs. 



With the first sign of yielding on the part of 

 grim winter there is a stir throughout all bird- 

 land. As spring comes on apace, up from the 

 South moves the restless host and scatters over 

 the entire northland until every field, forest and 

 park has its quota of feathered tenants. So regu- 

 lar are the comings and goings of these messen- 

 gers that they have been aptly termed the "mail 

 carriers of the seasons." To one who has the 

 love of Nature's melodies in his heart and whose 

 eye is keen to appreciate her beauties, the advent 

 in early March of the first Bluebird, Robin, or 

 Song Sparrow is a very important event in the 

 calendar. Not only does their coming mark the 

 approaching end of the dreary season of cold and 

 snow when life in the open is at its lowest ebb, 



