A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



as he is a ground-pecker. He subsists 

 largely on ants and crickets, and does not 

 appear till they are to be found. 



In Solomon's description of spring, the 

 voice of the turtle is prominent, but our 

 turtle, or mourning dove, though it arrives 

 in April, can hardly be said to contribute 

 noticeably to the open-air sounds. Its call 

 is so vague, and soft, and mournful, — in 

 fact, so remote and diffused, — that few 

 persons ever hear it at all. 



Such songsters as the cow blackbird are 

 noticeable at this season, though they take 

 a back seat a little later. It utters a pe- 

 culiarly liquid April sound. Indeed, one 

 would think its crop was full of water, its 

 notes so bubble up and regurgitate, and are 

 delivered with such an apparent stomachic 

 contraction. This bird is the only feath- 

 ered polygamist we have. The females are 

 greatly in excess of the males, and the lat- 

 ter are usually attended by three or four of 

 the former. As soon as the other birds 

 begin to build, they are on the qui vive^ 

 prowling about like gypsies, not to steal 

 the young of others, but to steal their eggs 

 into other birds' nests, and so shirk the 

 labor and responsibility of hatching and 



80 



