from his burrow. This note of the highhole is 

 irrepressibly exuberant and ringing with energy. If 

 it does not prove a tonic to you, nothing else will. 

 He is even more emphatic in his drumming. His 

 lively tattoo goes well with his vigorous call. Time 

 to be up and doing ! Wake up ! Wake up ! Wake up ! 

 Wake up! Wake up! 



Presently the first flock of fox-sparrows drop 

 down from somewhere and go to scratching among 

 the leaves, like so many chickens. The present 

 season a flock of perhaps fifty settled in and around 

 a thicket on March 24th. Their bold clear notes 

 could be heard some distance away, and drew one 

 in that dire&ion. Numbers of them were hopping 

 about, and occasionally a bird would rise to a 

 branch overhead and sing, looking like a hermit- 

 thrush as his back was turned. The place was 

 given over to the sparrows, and never was thicket 

 more tuneful. There was the sound of unceasing 

 revelry a sylvan and melodious revelry. 



At this season the impulse to expression is natu- 

 ral and daily becomes more evident. Even the 

 crow begins to afFedt music and to show off his 

 accomplishments. But it is Mile. Corbeau, and 

 not M. Reynard, that incites him to this exhibi- 



16 



