w 





and spring croakers which take to the water or rise 

 from the mud even before the ice has melted, each 

 successively filling with music the brief period of its 

 nuptial season, during which the pellucid eggs are de- 

 posited in the shallows. But the first voice that now 

 breaks the winter silence, and gives the key-note to the 

 choir which soon shall follow, is pretty sure to be that 

 of the Hy lodes, whose bird -like whistle is well known 

 to every dweller in the country, even though the iden- 

 tity of the singer has been a life-long mystery. 



Perhaps this first isolated " peep " is borne to us 



