SPRING ARRIVAL OF THE BIRDS. 



March 27. — Among the fair gifts which the bright 

 days of spring will bestow upon us, none are looked 

 forward to with livelier anticipation of pleasure than the 

 coining of the birds. If there is a tender spot in the heart, 

 it will leap with a thrill of joy as the first musical note 

 of tho robin or bluebird falls on the ear, an invocation 

 froni awakening nature. It is the return of dear friends 

 from long and perilous journeys. The only flaw in our 

 enjoyment of them is the thought that only a fraction 

 of those which left us last summer and autumn will 

 return. Like the soldiers of an harassed army, many 

 fell on field and highway on their southern journey; 

 others were destroyed for food in the land to which 

 they had gone to escape the cold of our winters, while 

 still a larger number were killed and are being killed on 

 their homeward journey. Each year these annual 

 migrations are beset with increased perils. The country 

 over which they pass offers fewer secure feeding places. 

 Forests have been cut down; swamps have been drained; 

 the freedmen who often watch for this small game ar# 

 becoming more generally provided with fire-arms ; 

 additional lighthouses have been erected along the 

 coasts. These latter are sources of peculiar danger to 



