down, now floating in the air, is used as a lining for their nests, while they 

 largely subsist on the thistle seeds. By the middle of July our graceful swallows 

 have completed household duties and are congregating along the marshes and 

 lakesides. Flocks of tree and bank swallows often mingle and move over the 

 marshy sloughs, alighting at sundown on the telephone and telegraph wires. Few 

 birds sing during the heat of the day except indigo buntings, towhees, dickcissels, 

 'field sparrows, song sparrows and robins. These birds are more domestic and 

 prolific than swallows and the duties of rearing a second family will consume 

 the entire month. 



The bobolink is losing his gay coat of black and white and hufit and is pre- 

 paring for a raid upon the southern rice fields where he will travel under the 

 disguise of "ricebird." Less capable of flight while shedding his feathers, he 

 retires to cornfields to molt, where he is afforded an imobstructed view on all 

 sides as a protection against natural enemies. 



August is the general month for molting. About the only birds demonstrative 

 about nest-building at this late date are some of the goldfinches and cedar wax- 

 wings. Many of the latter have remained in flocks through the entire winter, 

 spring, and early summer, but are now busy nest-building in some isolated 

 orchard, shade tree, or evergreen. A walk through the timber, along the water- 

 courses and over fields will disclose little bird-life as birds are naturally shy and 

 evasive while molting. Their flight even is defective so they remain within the 

 shelter of heavy grass or brush. We may see a dozen wood ducks about some 

 little lagoon or wooded lake, probably two adults and their offspring. Wood- 

 peckers may be seen moving about in families, two redheaded woodpeckers guid- 

 ing four or five immature birds which have not attained the scarlet headgear. 

 Only during the early hours of morning do the birds show any animation. At 

 that time we occasionally hear the song of a catbird, the call of a cuckoo, the 

 note of a pewee and the mellow twitter of a goldfinch as he darts back and forth 

 singing at every dip of his undulating flight. 



This is a good month to examine and collect birds' nests. They have not 

 long been exposed to the weather because the foliage is still on the trees. Many 

 nests are kept in their proper shape only by removing the twig, stem or limb to 

 which they are attached. The weather is still more or less sultry, but we may 

 venture into the damp or dark places without the annoyance of mosquitoes, gnats, 

 and other insects which are so numerous during Jiuie and July. 



With the arrival of September w'c see many new forms about our shade 

 trees, gardens and groves. They are not usually our summer residents in ditterent 

 plumage, but birds from a more northerly latitude. The warblers have begun 

 their annual southward journey. Along the pebbly beaches and sandy shores 

 hundreds of little waders are moving along in a systematic search for aquatic 

 life. Many of them are marked differently than they were five months ago. 

 During the interval they have visited the tundras and barrens about the Arctic 

 ocean, deposited their four eggs, reared their young and are now feasting as they 



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