The Birds and Poets 251 



February having been driven into the north, the 

 winds of March bring upon their tide the advance 

 guard of our feathered friends from the south. 

 February's chief claim to interest in the bird cal- 

 endar is that it makes way for the season that 



* * * bears upon its wing 

 The swallows and the songs of spring." 



And yet, like all the months of the year, it has 

 its own interesting birds. No bird seems more 

 typical of the cold, gray, fitful days of February 

 than the cold, gray, fitful owl! He blusters and 

 he mopes, he storms and he sleeps, by turns. At 

 times he is viciously and noisily aggressive, and 

 again he is characterized by a feline silence and 

 softness of movement that is uncanny. How 

 appropriate that he should choose February for 

 mating and establishing his home! 



With us the great horned owl and the barred 

 owl nest in February. Once very plentiful, both 

 species are now comparatively rare. The clear- 

 ing away of the heavy timber in which they always 

 prefer to nest has scattered them, and they are 

 now to be found only in the more remote patches 

 of deep woods, usually along the rivers or larger 

 streams. 



The great horned owl is called by Nuttall the 

 "eagle of the night, the king of the nocturnal tribe 

 of American birds." He is the largest of all the 

 owls, measuring sometimes twenty-five inches in 



