BIRDS OF PEASEMARSH 



the Hummingbird knows that its wings are a 

 marvel. 



It is remarkable that the birds should know 

 when to start and where to meet in flocks for 

 the journey. But the greatest wonder is that 

 they find their way, though they fly too high 

 above the earth to be guided by it. Often one 

 flock of the same species will be days behind 

 another, yet they keep to the same route, as if, 

 according to the Indian Legend, they really had 

 pathways in the sky. 



The return flight is equally wonderful. 

 After their travels of many thousands of miles 

 the birds not only find their way back to the 

 particular garden, or orchard, or tree clump, 

 or stream where they nested the year before, 

 but they arrive there at almost the same date 

 each year. Some cold day in March we waken 

 to hear our little Song Sparrow, one of the first 

 to tell us that spring is coming; a little later 

 we hear the Meadowlark and the liquid notes 

 of the Bluebirds that have returned to their 

 last year's nest box. One after the other they 

 all come home, each announcing its arrival in 

 its own peculiar way. It is usually about the 

 first of May before the Wren is singing on his 

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