II 



BIRDS OF THE SEASON 



EARLY messengers of spring are all the more welcome 

 through the season's wearying delay* The Robin we 

 all know, for the city's vapours have no terrors for 

 him* Sometimes he loiters quietly about all winter, 

 showing himself occasionally to awaken delusive 

 hopes of spring. The noisy, vigorous, and showy 

 Jays remain through the winter, gathering food from 

 many sources, and sometimes appealing to the kind- 

 ness of suburban residents. Woodpeckers never 

 desert us, and the Shrikes and Owls we have always 

 with us. The hasty Snowbirds seek the open spaces 

 in irregular flocks, searching for scattered seeds 

 on the black ridges of naked earth. But when the 

 timidly confiding Bluebird displays his rich colours 

 in the suburban orchards and fields it is a material 

 sign that the spirit of spring is in the air* A pair 

 found their way to a favoured valley recently, and 

 sought out the most tempting southern slope, where 

 the high, curving bank tried to concentrate and retain 

 the rays of the afternoon sun. There were patches 

 of naked earth, where the atmosphere quivered with 

 the reviving warmth and blurred the outline of 

 the open shrubbery in the close background. The 



