WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



forego it when they moult the gay plumage of the 

 season of courtship and put on the travelling-dress 

 for their annual migration southward. 



These birds arrive unannounced at this swamp 

 in the Hudson Valley some warm May morning, re- 

 vealing their presence by the loud, inquisitive ex- 

 clamation which so many persons have tried to 

 render in English words, and at once begin pros- 

 pecting every tuft of grass, every cluster of roots, 

 and each square foot of the ditch bank to find a good 

 site for a home. What things they must find I 

 what reminiscences recount to old friends! Some 

 acquaintances have stayed here all winter — the 

 spotted turtle, for example, who is so much of a 

 homekeeper that he is scarcely able to show even a 

 momentary polite interest in tales of foreign lands ; 

 but the song-sparrow is wide-awake in his responses, 

 and the travelled water-thrush is a sweet gossip. 

 These garrulous friends smile with the satisfac- 

 tion of returned wanderers as they hear again from 

 the rocky hill - side the shout of the highhole ; are 

 puzzled for an instant to remember, as the queer, 

 whistling chuckle of a crow-blackbird resounds 

 across the valley, whether it is the voice of a bird 

 or of a frog, and they shrink and hide when the 

 shadow of that same old broad-winged hawk, so 



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