The Birds’ Calendar 
convenience of going where they are. Accord- 
ing to nature’s laws they pay us a flying visit 
once or twice a year, and never expect the call 
to be returned. We must look for some ur- 
gently impelling motive for these regular, in- 
variable, and immense journeys undertaken so 
often by these creatures. We can hardly sup- 
pose that a bird that spends the summer in 
Labrador or Alaska goes down to Central Amer- 
ica in the fall and back again in the spring just 
for the pure fun of it. 
Shakespeare’s allusion to a bird that is with 
us in the midst of the year as 
‘* This guest of summer,” 
is a poetic license. At that season every bird 
is in its home, and not a guest anywhere. For 
the true home of a bird must be regarded as 
the place where it nests and sings. Ifa bird 
be found in the Arctic zone during the sing- 
ing and breeding season, that is surely its 
heart’s home, however far it may travel south- 
ward in the later months to find food, or to 
avoid the severity of winter’s cold. When we 
consider what strong local attachments they 
manifest, causing them not only to return, 
hundreds and thousands of miles to the very 
5° 
