& 



and spring croakers which take to the water or rise 

 from the mud even before the ice has melted, each 

 successively filling with music the brief period of its 

 -nuptial season, during which the pellucid eggs are de- 

 posited in the shallows. But the first voice that now 

 breaks the winter silence, and gives the key-note to the 

 choir which soon shall follow, is pretty sure to be that 

 of the Hy lodes, whose bird -like whistle is well known 

 to every dweller in the country, even though the iden- 

 tity of the singer has been a life-long mystery. 



Perhaps this first isolated " peep " is borne to us 



