76 WILD LIFE AND THE CAMERA 



winter with its hard, relentless fury, that had smitten 

 the woods and hedgerows as though with a poison 

 breath, and bared all trees save the sturdy ever- 

 greens, alone able to withstand its furious onslaught 

 without striking their colours. 



It was the middle of April. Here and there in 

 the woods, where the sun's rays had not yet 

 penetrated, might be found small patches of snow, 

 the gravestones of the departed winter ; near these 

 the bloodroot, white as though born of the melting 

 snow, lifted its leaf-encircled stem, and the Dutch- 

 man's breeches, with its lace-like leaf and rows of 

 queer little nodding flowers, sprang from the rich, 

 leafy mould. These, with the many tinted hepatica, 

 whose hardy leaves withstand the coldest winter, 

 were the harbingers of spring, sharing together the 

 honour of announcing to other plants that 'twas 

 time to rise and make ready, for the season was 

 advancing, and the country must be decorated for 

 the coming gala months so near at hand. 



Among the birds who came to the old apple 

 orchard so sheltered from the wintry fierceness of 

 the north winds that insects hatched out earliest 

 here and the buds first opened and offered delicious 

 morsels to the Bluebirds, were the many visitors who 

 would tarry but a few short days before once more 

 resuming the journey to their northern breeding 

 grounds. From these they would return in a few 

 months, accompanied by one or more broods of fully 

 grown youngsters all joining in the great procession 

 that would later on be journeying southward when 

 the nights began to be cold, and the trees (by 

 changing their dress from green to colours that 



