THEIR FUST APPEARANCE. 



THERE is no time in all the year in which some 

 young birds do not begin to earn their first 

 experience. 



Sparrows and starlings sometimes leave the nest 

 in the very depth of winter. Robins have been 

 hatched at Christmas. Waterton found in Decem- 

 ber even a young owlet wearing still its dress of down. 



But it is now, when woods are greenest, now in the 

 warm June weather, that the tide of life is rising to 

 the full. Now it is that we hear on every side, from 

 hedge and tree and housetop, the childish voices of 

 the young poets of the air. 



Not a tithe of all the gathering multitudes can ever 

 see a second season. For the weasel and the sparrow- 

 hawk, the caitiff crow and all his brother bandits, will 

 hold high revel in the covers. 



Were it not for the balance which is thus maintained, 

 we should be overrun altogether by crowds of hungry 

 birds. 



Nature manages her own affairs much better than 



