NATURE'S CALENDAR 



advance guard of those who, in the au- 

 tumn, had retreated only a little way- 

 south, and now take the earliest oppor- 

 tunity to edge back. 



Thus April brings, north of Maryland 

 in the East and the Ohio River in the 

 West, a good many of the hardier and 

 more familiar of our summer birds, some 

 of which may get well settled, and even 

 at breeding, before May-day. In the 

 neighborhood of Cincinnati, then, or 

 about Philadelphia, one may see by the 

 middle of April the commoner thrushes 

 and wrens, the bluebird, the yellow war- 

 bler, and oven bird ; all the swallows and 

 swifts ; the savanna, field, chipping, song, 

 swamp, and some more obscure sparrows 

 and finches; half a dozen kinds of black- 

 birds, crows, and jays; the phoebe-bird 

 and perhaps a kingbird or two ; two or 

 three woodpeckers, most of the hawks 

 and owls, and the wild pigeon, among 

 land-birds; while of the water-birds the 

 commoner snipes and plovers and the 

 various marsh hens are early comers ; and 

 already many ducks have passed on to 

 their far northern breeding-grounds. 



But when April's chills hav^e gone 

 woods, roadsides, and gardens suddenly 

 fill with songsters, and May becomes a 

 "merry month" indeed. The bobolink 

 rollicks in every meadow, chaffing the 

 crazy-headed chat above the thickets 

 along its margin ; swallows gleam and 

 curvet in the air, the vireo exhorts us 



