I a THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS. 



OUSness is in celebration of the pairing or mating cere- 

 mony, or whether it is only a sort of annual " house- 

 warming" common among high-holes on resuming their 

 summer quarters, is a question upon which I reserve 

 my judgment 



Unlike most of his kinsmen, the golden-wing prefers 

 the fields and the borders of the forest to the deeper 

 seclusion of the woods, and hence, contrary to the 

 habit of his tribe, obtains most of his subsistence from 

 the ground, probing it for ants and crickets. He is not 

 quite satisfied with being a woodpecker. He courts 

 the society of the robin and the finches, abandons the 

 trees for the meadow, and feeds eagerly upon berries 

 and grain. What may be the final upshot of this course 

 of living is a question worthy the attention of Darwin. 

 Will his taking to the ground and his pedestrian feats 

 result in lengthening his legs, his feeding upon berries 

 and grains subdue his tints and soften his voice, and 

 his associating with Robin put a song into his heart ? 



Indeed, what would be more interesting than the 

 history of our birds for the last two or three centuries ? 

 There can be no doubt that the presence of man has 

 exerted a very marked and friendly influence upon them, 

 since they so multiply in his society. The birds of Cali- 

 fornia, it is said, were mostly silent till after its settle- 

 ment, and I doubt if the Indians heard the wood-thrush 

 as we hear him. Where did the bobolink disport him- 

 self before there were meadows in the North and rice- 

 fields in the South ? Was he the same blithe, merry- 



