The Birds’ Calendar 
selves—in their most animated mood, and in 
finest plumage. Some, like the American gold- 
finch, seem like quite another bird in winter, 
dressed in sober brown; and where the change 
is not so remarkable, the colors are noticeably 
dull and lifeless during the winter months. 
How spiritless, shabby, and almost contempt- 
ible a robin looks in January, skulking among 
the undergrowth, as if conscious and ashamed 
of his unkempt and faded appearance. But 
look at him in March! He is a new creature, 
proud and self-respecting, with lively eye, quick 
and eager in movement, conspicuously perch- 
ing high in the branches, as if courting your 
gaze, and proud to show his bright chestnut 
breast and black head, sleek and shapely—a 
typical thrush. Tennyson knew the vernal 
change in the birds when he sang— 
‘In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s 
breast ; 
In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another _ 
crest ; 
In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished 
dove.” 
In twos and threes the robins are now flitting 
about, uttering only their ‘call-notes, a genuine 
thrush-tone, and reserving their song till it is 
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