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squirrel running over the roof. As you rise to prepare for the 

 duties of the day, it is hardly light enough clearly to distinguish 

 objects in the grove. From the wooded brookside the sweet 

 and solemn tones of the wood thrush float tremulously to your 

 ear. Now a robin sings boldly from the top of a tall tree, where 

 he can see the promise of day in the east; another takes up the 

 refrain, and, by the time you have reached the garden, the full 

 bird chorus pours forth from the surrounding woods. Mingled 

 with the refrain you hear the distant trill of the chipping spar- 

 row rising and falling like the breath of a sleeper in the fields. 

 The oven-bird awakens the echoes of the woods with a staccato 

 note. The light, cool breath of the morning fans your cheek 

 as it comes up from dewy meadows laden with the fragrance 

 of lilies and azaleas. The eastern sky is rosy with the dawn, 

 and as you gaze upon the beauteous scene dark shadows fade 

 and fly. Aurora climbs the glowing firmament and morning 

 walks abroad upon the fields. With a heart filled with thank- 

 fulness you slowly sink on bended knee and go to killing squash 

 bugs, otherwise, you would get few squashes. Much as 

 the farmer may admire the beautiful in nature, he cannot spend 

 the early morning hours in idle contemplation. 



As you look abroad over the garden, you see robins hopping 

 here and there, searching for earthworms, cutworms and grubs. 

 Robins find many earthworms early in the season, but later, 

 as the soil loses much of its moisture, these worms cannot be 

 found so readily, as they descend to greater depths, and the 

 robin must depend largely on insect food for its own subsis- 

 tence and nourishment for its brood. Owing to the abundance 

 of the robin in our neighborhood, it easily led all other birds 

 as a destroyer of garden pests. It is one of the few birds that 

 habitually seek their food on the ground in the garden early 

 and late when the cutworms are abroad. The abundance of 

 robins in the vicinity may be accounted for in part by their 

 fondness for their roost in the pine grove. In 1901 there were 

 more than thirty robins' nests in trees in the woods or fields 

 near the house. There were three in a large pine in front of 

 the house, and three more over the door of a summer cottage 

 near by. Although most of the eggs or young in the nests were 

 destroyed by the various enemies of birds, there were usually 



