The Birds' Calendar 



cal reserve is of more authority than the opinion 

 of those who have not. 



The delight caused by the return of many a 

 bird in spring is in large measure due to the 

 associated scenes of other times that are recalled 

 by its appearance. Everyone in the country 

 who has wandered through the woods at the 

 twilight hour, listening to the choristers that 

 sing their varied farewell to the day and drop 

 off one by one into silence, feels the force of 

 the poet's lines : 



" Each bird gives o'er its note, the thrush alone 

 Fills the cool grove when all the rest are gone." 



It may well have been some noble song like 

 the robin's cheerful warble, or the more glorious 

 chant of the wood thrush, heard among the 

 branches in the cool of the day, that inspired 

 the poetic utterance of the Psalmist, so sensitive 

 to every natural beauty " Thou makest the 

 outgoings of the morning and evening to re- 

 joice." (For " rejoice " the marginal reading 

 is "sing," which gives color to the foregoing 

 ornithological exegesis.) 



i 



A change has come over the spirit of the 

 phcebe, which for the past few days has been 

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