IV 



ANIMAL LIFE IN THE WOODS. JUNE 

 AND JULY 



6. A morning ramble over the bedewed meadows, 

 through the shaded woods, or along the sunny beach would 

 not be half as enjoyable if the bobolinks were silent, squir- 

 rels not scolding, catbirds and thrushes not singing, wood- 

 peckers not hammering ; and if the stately blue heron, the 

 wary duck, the swift-winged snipes and gulls had not taught 

 us to watch with expectancy every clump of rushes and 

 every concealed nook and bay. All who love nature cer- 

 tainly regret that for most regions of our country the days 

 have passed when the farmer boy could watch as many 

 deer slowly drawing out of the thicket as he can now find 

 gray squirrels slyly peeping at him from the spreading 

 boughs. But if the larger animals have retreated into the 

 unsettled wilderness, we must study the humbler ones that 

 have remained with us so much more carefully. If the 

 large game animals have retreated before advancing civ- 

 ilization, our common song birds have apparently much 

 increased in numbers and prefer a settled country to the 

 wilderness. If you would see and hear many of the winged 

 singers, you must not look for them in the depth of a large 

 forest, but in orchards, in copses, groves, and along the 

 edges of woods. There you will find the slate-colored cat- 

 birds ; the brown, long-tailed thrasher, the orioles, the rose- 

 breasted grosbeak, and many of the small warblers, vireos, 

 and sparrows, as well as the bright-colored screaming blue- 



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