A SPRING RELISH 



amid the dust, working it over and over, 

 and searching it like diamond-hunters, and 

 after a time their baskets are filled with the 

 precious flour, which is probably only a 

 certain part of the wood, doubtless the soft, 

 nutritious inner bark. 



In fact, all signs and phases of life in the 

 early season are very capricious, and are 

 earlier or later just as some local or ex- 

 ceptional circumstance favors or hinders. 

 It is only such birds as arrive after about 

 the 20th of April that are at all "punc- 

 tual" according to the almanac. I have 

 never known the arrival of the barn swal- 

 low to vary much from that date in this 

 latitude, no matter how early or late the 

 season might be. Another punctual bird 

 is the yellow redpoll warbler, the first of 

 his class that appears. Year after year, 

 between the 2Oth and the 25th, I am sure 

 to see this little bird about my place for a 

 day or two only, now on the ground, now 

 on the fences, now on the small trees and 

 shrubs, and closely examining the buds or 

 just-opening leaves of the apple-trees. He 

 is a small olive-colored bird, with a dark- 

 red or maroon-colored patch on the top of 

 his head. His ordinary note is a smart 

 45 



