II.— RESIDENTS OF THE ORCHARD. 



" ^^^?,' ,w^icli the breath of summer days, 

 Nhall lengthen into leafy sprays • 

 Boughs, where the thrush with crimson breast 

 fehall haunt and sing and hide her nest." 



—Bryant. 



An orchard is a mine of almost limitless opportunity to 

 the observant lover of bird-life. From the advent of the 

 bluebird, forerunning azure skies and invigorating breezes 

 until the sweet plaint of the "peabody bird " is heard on 

 the frosty mornings of early fall, the typical orchard is 

 animate with the movements of the birds, and vocal with 

 their notes and cries. There 



"* * * the busy birds shall flutter. 

 With the light timber for their nests, 



And, pausing from their labor, utter 

 The morning sunshine in their breasts." 



There the foliage seems to expand with unusual vivid- 

 ness, forming a more complete setting for the livino- gems 

 flashing among the spreading branches, and there the 

 birds seem to utter their notes with additional charm and 

 fervency. There also they receive our advances with 

 diminished suspicion, and hence afford us opportunities of 

 reading more closely between the lines of their ordinary 

 existences, and of comprehending more fully the impulses 

 that prompt their individual actions. Besides its con- 

 venience in situation, the orchard has -a methodical dis^ 

 position of its trees, and hence its different portions are 

 more evenly lighted, thus assuring the beginner in orni- 

 thology more satisfaction and profit in entering upon his 

 studies there than elsewhere. Orchards in the outskirts 

 of villages, or in the vicinity of woods, streams, and ponds, 

 are notable for both the variety of species and the number 

 of individuals dwelling within their limits. Old orchards 

 are more populous than younger orchards, because they 

 furnish more nesting sites, and also because they present 



