Birds of Lewiston-Auburn ii 



WITH THE BIRDS IN SUMMER 



By early June the migrants have come and gone. 

 Then I enjoy trips to the country for Burroughs says 

 "June of all the months the student of ornithology can 

 least afford to lose. Most birds are nesting then and in 

 full song and plumage." When the excitement of the 

 migration is over in the residential sections of the city, a 

 June walk in the suburbs where many birds are house- 

 keeping is very enjoyable. 



June is the time when I most enjoy the evening songs 

 and the morning chorus, for it is the month of long days. 

 The robin awakes the world as early as three o'clock 

 with his clarion notes and the hermit sings his vesper 

 hymn as late as eight o'clock. 



How the bird lover delights in those sunsets and 

 those evenings of song that may be experienced on the 

 nesting ground of the feathered musicians ! As dark- 

 ness creeps on and the stars come out, the last strains of 

 a white-throat, field sparrow, robin, veery and hermit 

 are heard and the whippoorwill begins his even-song. 

 Such experiences give one as Burroughs says "that 

 serene exaltation of sentiment of which music, literature 

 and religion are but the faint types and symbols." 



As Audubon expresses it, when day breaks, how 

 delightful it is to see fair Nature open her graceful eye- 

 lids, and present herself arrayed in all that is richest and 

 purest before her Creator ! 



When daylight is coming on a nighthawk flies over the 

 sleeping wood with his call as if his duty were to arouse 

 the sleepers, the whippoorwill awakes from one of his 

 intermittent naps to give the world his last strains of 

 whip-poor-will/' Soon robins, hermits, martins, spar- 



ti 



