NATURE'S CALENDAR 



JUNE 



As May was the month of the coming June i 



of the birds, with bursting forth of leaf- ~~ 



age and bloom, so June is distinctly the 

 month of their home-life. Some — early 

 beginners — have already a family to en- 

 gross their attention ; others are sitting 

 on their eggs, while still others are just 

 constructing their nests; but, in some 

 degree, all birds are domestic in June. 



This means that they are doing more 

 than simply making nests or watching 

 eggs or callow young. It means that 

 they are wearing the brightest plumage 

 and uttering the brightest songs of the 

 year, for now is the culmination of the 

 bird year, and all deck themselves for it 

 — "a livelier iris comes upon the bur- 

 nished dove." In some cases special or- 

 naments are added to the plumage, to be 

 shed at the next molt. Such is the 

 aigrette of the white herons, now exter- 

 minated from Florida, and in danger of 

 extinction elsewhere through the rapacity 

 of gunners who kill them to get the love- 

 ly back tufts for the milliners' use. The 

 most striking example of this special 

 breeding costume in our eastern fields is 

 that of the goldfinch, which, dull and in- 



