48 



NATURE'S CALENDAR 



March 22 



joicing roundelay of the song sparrow. 

 As I have written elsewhere : 



" He starts off with a few rattling 

 notes, makes a quick leap to a high 

 strain, ascends through many a melo- 

 dious variation to the key-note, and sud- 

 denly stops, leaving his song to sing itself 

 through in your brain. To amplify an- 

 other's illustration, it is as though he 

 said 'press-/r<?jj-PRESS-BY-TEEEE-RiAN- 

 iaji! ' His clear tenor, the gurgling, bub- 

 bling alto of the blackbirds, the slender 

 purity of the bluebird's soprano, and the 

 solid basso profundo of the frogs, with 

 the accompaniment of the April wind 

 piping on the bare reeds of winter, or the 

 drumming of raindrops, form the natural- 

 ist's spring quartette— as pleasing, if not 

 as grand, as the full chorus of leafy June." 



Goldfinches, too, are here, but not yet 

 in their gay plumage, nor animated into 

 song. Slate -colored snow-birds dart 

 hither and yon, chirping in metallic sylla- 

 bles. In all the open meadows, when the 

 new grass is shooting its green spears up 

 through the matted and sere foggage, 

 are flitting the miscalled " tree " sparrows, 

 and the vesper sparrows, the latter flirt- 

 ing their white-tipped tails and carolling 

 sweetly in the dusk, where meadow-larks 

 are loudly calling. The thickets harbor 

 restless bands of white- throated spar- 

 rows, called Peabody birds in New Eng- 

 land, in imitation of their lively melody: 

 and among them you will meet, more 



March 23 



