The Birds and Poets 269 



Thou first sky-dipped spring-bud of song, 



Whose heavenly ecstasy 

 Foretells the May while yet March winds are strong, 



Fresh faith appears with thee!" 



The red-winged black birds come back in 

 March and sing from the bare willows along the 

 swollen streams, and the fox sparrow passes as 

 early as March on his way back to the north woods. 

 He seldom sings on the way his song of exceptional 

 sweetness, but he permits us to admire his bright 

 spring coat, and there is no more beautiful brown 

 in the world than his back. The song, swamp and 

 field sparrows, of our own summer colony, also 

 begin returning this month. The mourning dove 

 which did not leave us until November returns 

 before the first of April. Among other March 

 arrivals may be mentioned the meadowlark, whose 

 early spring call from the bare fields is dynamic, 

 and the cowbird, the phoebe and a few snipe and 

 plovers. Of the latter, the killdeer is one of the 

 most typical of March birds. His vigorous, dart- 

 ing flight over the dun, windy fields, with his 

 clarion call "kill-deer! kill-deer! kill-deer!" seem 

 part and parcel of the early spring landscape. 

 This bird always speaks his own name, like the 

 chickadee, and he is easily identified by his famil- 

 iar call. He is most frequently found in meadows 

 and pastures in the vicinity of water. At all times 

 noisy and querulous, in the breeding season nothing 

 can exceed the killdeer's exuberance. The chorus 



