The Birds’ Calendar 
—statuesque and beautiful, and indispensable 
to lake scenery, but cold and conventional, and 
suffering greatly, like the peacock, by the in- 
vention of cheap prints. 
My record for March comprises the follow- 
ing species, all but three of them in the 
Ramble: chickadee, nuthatch, cardinal, rob- 
in, gull, crow, shrike, white-throat, flicker, 
downy wood-pecker, American and European 
goldfinches, snow-bird, grackle, blue jay, red- 
winged blackbird, song sparrow, fox sparrow, 
crossbill, and phoebe. ‘Those who delay their 
gloved acquaintance with Nature until May, 
are quite oblivious that she is already so wake- 
ful in this desolate and repellent month, and 
giving so excellent a foretaste of the fuller tide 
of life to follow. 
96 
