28 THE SPRING OF THE YEAR 



III 



Among the other early signs of spring, you should 

 see a flock of red-winged blackbirds ! And what 

 a sight they are upon a snow-covered field ! For often 

 after their return it will snow again, when the bril- 

 liant, shining birds in black with their red epaulets 

 make one of the most striking sights of the season. 



IV 



Another bird event that you should witness is the 

 arrival of the migrating warblers. You will be out 

 one of these early May days when there will be a 

 stirring of small birds in the bushes at your side, 

 in the tall trees over your head everywhere! It is 

 the warblers. You are in the tide of the tiny migrants 

 yellow warblers, pine warblers, myrtle warblers, 

 black-throated green warblers some of them on 

 their way from South America to Labrador. You 

 must be in the woods and see them as they come. 



V 



You should see the "spice-bush" (wild allspice or 

 fever-bush or Benjamin-bush) in bloom in the damp 

 March woods. And, besides that, you should see with 

 your own eyes under some deep, dark forest trees the 

 blue hepatica and on some bushy hillside the pink 

 arbutus. (For fear I forget to tell you in the chapter 

 of things to do, let me now say that you should take 

 a day this spring and go " may-flowering.") 



