239 



observes this writer, these beautiful birds are 

 excessively common. They are by no means shy, 

 and, like other Tanagers out of the breeding season, 

 are united in small flights, passing from one fruit 

 tree to another and paying particular attention to 

 the oranofe trees." 



Milt) 35ivD5 in the lEarlv? J^ear. 



By Svi.viA. 



IT is surprising how early in the year one begins to 

 notice among wild birds the first faint but 

 unmistakable signs that a nuptial season is at 

 hand — a season of warmth and plenty, of joy, 

 of love, and of song. 



As harbingers of spring, we do not indeed reckon 

 much on the optimistic Redbreast, nor yet on the 

 placid Wren whose notes greet the chillest of winter 

 sunbeams at the very solstice. Nor can w^e put much 

 faith in the prophetic instinct of the Hedge Warbler, 

 ever ready to carol forth a hymn of thanks for 

 mercies, be they never so small ; and the song of the 

 Starling — a self-conscious vocalist, as all unskilful per- 

 formers should be — does not more incline us to think 

 of the coming season than of that left behind. 



In the notes of the Stormcock, bidding defiance 

 to the passing flow, there is perhaps a ring which 

 speaks of the changing season, but even he is a winter 

 songster, and it is only when we hear the Song Thrush 

 — the true herald of the new year — that we perceive 

 the old things of winter, of decay and death, to be 

 passing away, and all nature to be becoming new. 

 The Song Thrush's familiar congener, the Blackbird, 

 however, with a wisdom born perhaps of his more 

 exalted rank in Thrush society (witness the highly 

 differentiated sexual plumage), hesitates to commit 



