32 Twelve Months With 



Who knows but that, with his joyous optimism 

 and his impudent, self-reliant spirit, he may not 

 some day be in a class by himself? 



The flicker is one of the many common birds 

 which, like the perfume of some old-fashioned 

 garden flower, calls up old associations, as in Mr. 

 S. M. McManus' "Flicker on the Fence": 



"Between the songs and silences of the flicker on the 



fence, 

 A singing his old fashioned tune, full of meanin' and 



of sense, 



I fall into a musin' spell sometimes of other days, 

 When things was mostly different, leastwise in many 



ways; 



And I feel so kind of lon'some with the new things 



round about, 

 And am like the taller candle, waitin' fer to be snuffed 



out, 



I look around to find a sign that I hain't lost my sense, 

 And get my bearin's when I hear the flicker on the 



fence." 



The cedar waxwings are peculiarly gentle and 

 attractive birds. They usually travel in small 

 troups of from five to nine birds, flying just high 

 enough to clear the treetops, quietly dropping 

 down into a tree now and then for the purpose 

 of feeding. They have as much individuality as 

 the flicker, but, unlike him, they are proverbially 

 gentle and refined, and their neat brown coats 



