28 



THE OOLOGIST. 



"whooping." Last night the ground 

 was nearly bare, but this morning 24 

 inches of snow covered the ground. A 

 lot of Horned Larks came into my gar- 

 den to feed, but hardly a weed top was 



to be seen. 



March 2 —Just 26 inches of snow on 

 the level, and great drifts have been 

 formed hy the heavy winds Several 

 groups of Crows flew around our town, 

 anxiously scanning the snowy billows 

 for a morsel of food. I scattered wheat 

 on the snow for the Horned Larks and 

 three of them remained all the after- 

 noon. At first only one came, and 

 when others came he tried to drive 

 them away — seemingly afraid that there 

 wouldn't be enough grain for all. 



March 6.— Snow increased to 33 in- 

 ches deep and the Horned Larks have 

 become abundant— increase in numbers 

 every day, and are so tamed by hunger 

 that they run about picking up the 

 buckwheat meats within 5 or 6 feet of 



me. 



March 13 — Robins arrived on the 



9th— 4 of them— although the temperat- 

 ure was 6 degrees below zero. I saw 

 about 50 today in an orchard where 

 they were "yipping" and eating rotton 

 apples that s*ill hung on the trees. 



March 23.— Saw the first Red-winged 

 Blackbird this morning at 7 o'clock. 

 He sat on the "Upmost branch of the 

 topmost" elm tree and poured forth his 

 happy "0 glee-ee-ee e." But he soon 

 flew on north and was lost to view. 

 The 40 or 50 other companions who 

 ought to have been with h^m are prob- 

 ably stuck upon the- barbarous bonnets 

 of our highly organized and civilized 

 "fearfully and wonderfully made' 

 maids, who seem to be trying to equal 

 their sisters in darker portions of the 

 earth, in the manner of personal adorn- 

 ment. 



I heard the sweet warblings of B'ue- 



birds for the first time. This morning 

 quite a sprinkling of Robins came into 

 town and for some time their homely 

 yet pleasant notes sounded the good 



tidings of nearby balmy days "when 

 the Robins will nest again." Saw two 

 Meadowlarks flying north high in the 

 air. 



March 25 — This was a beautiful day, 

 clear but an icy east wicd made it 

 rather frosty. Robins filled our streets 

 with music, while the valley fairly 

 swarmed with Bluebirds and I never 

 have seen — even years ago — such a flock 

 of Bluebirds. All day long they war- 

 bled, flitted and played around the old 

 willow stubs that fringe along the 

 swamp. During the morning hours 

 Song Sparrows were in full song for the 

 first time. 



March 26 —At 5;30 p. m. about 75 

 Red-wings came from the fields and 

 flew out in the f^wamp where they 

 roosted in the cattails. 



March 27. — Although the weather 

 was cold and cloudy at 6:15 a m., yet 

 the Song Sparrows were bubbling over, 

 as on a bright sunshiny morn. Kildeers 

 were seen on the 23cl, but I saw my first 

 one today over in a grassy boggy place. 



March 30. — As I stood in my garden 

 this morning about 7 o'clock, I heard 

 among the medley of Robins, a sweet 

 warb'e, and closer listening revealed a 

 Purple Finch's jubilant strain, coming 

 from a lowly perch in a tree in my gar- 

 den, but as I approached he mounted 

 higher until the top of the tree was 

 reached, when after a few bursts of 

 melody, he arose high in the air flying 

 first one way and another, then flying 

 up the street. For the first time the 

 Red-wings remained around swamp and 

 sang their "Og'/ee-ee" and willow 

 trees and cat- tails, while the irrepress- 

 ible Song Sparrows mounted on dozens 

 of high places sang with joy and sweet- 

 ness — a song that is indeed of great 

 variation. 



Robins are becoming enamoured of 

 each other and scenes of courtship are 

 an every day occurrence — males utter- 

 ing subdued twitterings and "showing 

 off"— flitting about the females from 



