STATE POMOLOGICAIv SOCIETY. 79 



breast as soon as you see him. Of course Robin is one of our 

 best fairies. 



Here is one of our common ^Yinter birds, the Snow Bunting. 

 You will see these in fiocks round on the weeds. That is one 

 of our fairies. 



But here is one of the hobgoblins, a pretty bird, but he is 

 one of the enemies of the other birds. This is called the shrike 

 or butcher bird. This is one of our winter birds also, but he 

 is a very cruel bird. He has a cruel, ugly bill like the hawk, 

 and lives on small animals and insects. He kills a great many 

 large grasshoppers as well as field mice, and other little birds. 

 You people who live in the country have probably seen quite 

 often mice hung up on trees. Sometimes they are hung in the 

 crotches of branches with their head caught in the crotch, and 

 no doubt you have wondered how a mouse could ever get up 

 into a tree. Well, it is the work of the shrike or butcher bird. 

 He will kill a great many more mice and little birds than he 

 can eat and uses the trees for cold storage plants and hangs 

 them up around till he gets ready to eat them. Sometimes 

 he eats them, sometimes he doesn't. 



Here is one of the dearest birds that we have. It is not a 

 very common bird but it is an especially pretty one and one of 

 our sweetest singers. This is the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, a 

 very sweet singer. - It resembles the oriole. They are not 

 nearly as plenty as I wish they were. 



This is one of our dear little winter birds, the Chickadee. 

 Nearly everybody knows the Black-capped Chickadee, which 

 has such a cheerful little cheep in the winter. You all know 

 the notes chickadee-dee-dee, but not every one knows that it 

 also has two other songs. It has one sweet little call of two 

 notes which very much resembles the song of the Phoebe, only a 

 little fainter and sweeter. 



Now we have one of our most cheerful spring birds. I think 

 most of you can see the red and yellow epaulette on its shoulder, 

 — the Red-winged Blackbird. A peculiarity about these birds is 

 that the male birds come first ; although they are very devoted 

 husbands after they are once married and never flirt with any 

 other women, yet they come ahead and leave the girls to tag 

 along behind. They live, after they decide wdiere to build, in 

 wet places along the brooks and ponds, but when they first 



