nothing at all except the Maker and the genius of melody." 

 Savanna, swamp, vesper, field, chipping and white throated 

 sparrows come. April has been called the robins month, 

 but it is also the month of the sparrow, for if the white 

 crowned is seen, as it is some years in April, the whole 

 family is here during this month. We also see the flicker, 

 yellow bellied sapsucker, purple finches, tree and barn swal- 

 lows and the winter wren. This species is rare in migra- 

 tion. One of our members who lives outside the city often 

 reports bank swallows in April. At one martin house the 

 purple martins often come Patriots Day. 



About the 19th of April we see, and hear the beautiful 

 notes of the hermit thrush, the bird that Mabel S. Merrill 

 says "makes the woods ring with the marvelous music that 

 seems to express all the longings and raptures of a voiceless 

 world and whose celestial strains come floating to us out of 

 the shadows, as if all the wistful beauty of the budding world 

 had been distilled to pure music.'' 



The blue heron arrives at Lake Auburn. Later in April 

 we see the osprey stopping around the "logan" or a little 

 farther up river a few days to fish before going to Lake 

 Auburn for the summer. More warblers, the pine, black and 

 white, and myrtle arrive, for the insect world is waking up. 

 We may see the loon as he flies overhead from one lake to 

 another. The brown thrasher, whose notes are a whole or- 

 chestra, and the loggerhead shrike (the A. O. U. cheek list 

 calls our northern species the migrant shrike) are April ar- 

 rivals. The bald eagle is reported at Lake Auburn. 



During May, the best month of all the year for observa- 

 tion of migrating birds we find the first vireo, the blue- 

 headed or solitary, followed a few days later by the yellow- 

 throated and warbling. The redeyed does not come to us un- 

 til the latter part of the month. The bank swallow and the 

 last of the family, the eave, are at their nesting places. The 

 northern water thrush, green heron, chimney swift, Ameri- 

 can bittern, chebec, spotted, and some years the solitary, 

 least or semipalmated sandpipers are listed. Occasionally a 

 chewink stops on his way for us to get a good study. This 

 bird nests at North Auburn. 



When the warblers begin migrating the mornings are 

 busy ones. It requires alertness to catch a view of their small 

 bodies, but their bright plumage is a help. Their bodies are 

 more attractive than their songs. The black throated green, 

 black throated blue, Nashville, yellow, chestnut-sided, paru- 

 la and magnolia warblers come first. We also get the rose- 

 breasted grosbeak, Maryland yellowthroat, redstart, oven- 

 bird, Wilson's thrush, about which Van Dyke has written 



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