238 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



busy among the worms and grubs mostly, it is true, 

 among the worms, but how many of us remember 

 that these are friends and not enemies of agriculture ? 

 We rejoice in the blackbird then, and even take pains 

 to prevent the irresponsible boy from destroying its 

 eggs. It is left to the jays, if we do not shoot them, 

 to keep the breed down somewhat by eating every 

 egg or birdling they can find. But in spite of the jay 

 and of other natural checks, the blackbirds increase 

 mightily every summer. A second laying quickly 

 replaces the lost clutch, and the unmolested bird 

 seldom fails to rear two healthy broods of five apiece. 

 Every ebon songster of spring is now the leader of a 

 dusky troupe, from which perilous autumn and winter 

 must select the strongest and wariest for the work 

 of propagation next year. 



A similar and often more welcome surplus is 

 evident in most directions. Two pairs of flycatchers 

 came to us in spring. Now there are two, if not three, 

 broods on the wing, and an interesting family of 

 three about to leave a late nest In all manner of 

 places we see the low-sitting bird waiting for a 

 pounce, or its long-pointed wings flashing after the 

 invisible, twisting prey. The long flight southward, 

 the unknown dangers of an African winter, and the 

 return next year, will inevitably reduce our score or 

 so of flycatchers more or less to the two pairs that 

 have been our average portion for twenty years past. 

 Yesterday we looked below the coping of a dry wall 

 at the three nestlings of the second brood of wagtails. 

 The first brood has entirely vanished long since. 

 Their parents, having fed them first and last with a 

 myriad flies and grubs, gave them in some way to 



