CUCKOO NOTES. 



TAKEN at the right season, the mountainous 

 region of northern Georgia will furnish a prac- 

 tically unvvorked field to the naturalist and 

 pedestrian tourist, whilst to the artist it must 

 become, sooner or later, a source of rich treas- 

 ure. No other part of our country offers so 

 pleasing a variety of landscape features, from 

 the quiet repose of level river-fed valleys to 

 the grandeur of rocky peaks thrown up against 

 the bluest sky in the world. 



This region is the Spring haunt of a large 

 number of our American birds, as it affords 

 the best possible nesting- and feeding-places 

 for them, especially those whose habits are in- 

 sectivorous and arboreal ; besides, it is in the 

 direct line of migration from Florida and other 

 southern winter resorts to the great northern 

 summer habitat of those happy feathered aris- 

 tocrats who can afford to oscillate with the sun. 

 The peculiarities of soil, the suddenness with 

 which Spring comes on, and the protection to 

 tender germs afforded by the curiously moun- 

 tain-locked " pockets " and valleys, cause all 

 sorts of forest and field vegetation to leap 

 into vivid, lusty life early in April. 



There is no word in our language so express- 

 ive of the sudden appearance of leaf and 

 flower all over those brown hills and slate- 

 gray valleys, as gush. The rains practically 

 end with March, and the sun ushers in the suc- 

 ceeding month with a fervor that would be un- 



